A SWAT team broke down the door of Lindell Briscoe and Brittany Arlesia's home and detained the family on the sidewalk for 30 minutes while officers ransacked their house, searching for evidence of an armed carjacking the family had no connection to. The raid was based on Apple's Find My app showing stolen AirPods at their address—but the AirPods were actually in the street outside. Detective Joseph Percich's warrant affidavit stated the AirPods were 'at the residence of 1022 Wylin Court,' leading to a no-knock search warrant that traumatized five children, including a three-month-old baby left crying inside for four minutes.
The Eighth Circuit panel—Smith, Benton, and Erickson—rejected the family's claims that Detective Percich violated the Fourth Amendment by including false information in his warrant affidavit. 'Detective Percich's failure to include additional details is not enough to establish a Franks violation unless the absence of those details shows reckless disregard for the truth,' Judge Smith wrote. The court emphasized that while Percich's affidavit 'could have been more thorough and precise,' the Fourth Amendment requires only that warrant affidavits be truthful, 'not that every fact recited in the warrant affidavit is necessarily correct.'
Judge Smith acknowledged the family's ordeal but refused to second-guess the warrant with hindsight: 'As unfortunate as this incident was for Appellants, we do not evaluate probable cause in hindsight, based on what a search does or does not turn up.' The court noted that affidavits are 'normally drafted by nonlawyers in the midst and haste of a criminal investigation' and that 'perfection is not required for a search warrant to survive appellate review.'
The case arose from a May 2023 armed carjacking at a Waffle House where two masked suspects stole a Dodge Charger at gunpoint from teenagers. When police tracked stolen AirPods to the Wylin Court address using Apple's location feature, Detective Percich applied for a search warrant. U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp had granted St. Louis County and Detective Percich's motion to dismiss all claims, finding the detective entitled to qualified immunity on excessive force claims and that the family's detention during the search was reasonable.
The family argued that Percich should have disclosed the inherent imprecision of Apple's Find My technology and explained that 'the accuracy of the [Find My] app depends on the configuration of adjoining buildings, the location of cell towers, Bluetooth connectivity, WiFi and GPS networks, and other factors.' But Judge Smith rejected this argument, writing that 'while Detective Percich could have included these more detailed explanations, the Fourth Amendment did not require it.'
The court also dismissed claims that the SWAT team deployment constituted excessive force, ruling that Detective Percich was entitled to qualified immunity. The panel found it reasonable to use a SWAT team given that the suspects had used firearms 'at least one of which was equipped with a drum magazine,' fled from police at high speed, and crashed into a police vehicle. 'Clearly, the suspects involved in the carjacking had already demonstrated that they were armed, dangerous, and unwilling to comply with law enforcement,' Judge Smith wrote.
The family's municipal liability claim against St. Louis County also failed for lack of specific factual allegations. The court noted that 'conclusory allegations that are unsupported by facts will not satisfy this pleading standard' and that the family provided no examples of other unjustified SWAT raids. After dismissing all federal claims, the district court properly declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the family's state law claim under Missouri's Sunshine Law.