Lawsuit alleging illegal searches by Riverside County Sheriff’s settled for $136,000

Attorney: Retired Lake Elsinore couple's two homes were raided due to a false belief they were stealing power to grow marijuana

By ALLYSON VERGARA

Riverside County paid a six-figure settlement to end a lawsuit brought by a Lake Elsinore couple that alleged their two homes were broken into and searched without a warrant by Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies in summer 2021.

The county paid $136,000 to settle a federal civil rights suit filed by [CH], and her husband, [JW], states a news release from their attorney, Alex Coolman.

“This was a very strange and frightening incident,” [CH] said in the release. “We did nothing to deserve this, and it made us feel unsafe in our own homes.”

[CH] and [JW] sued in March in response to sheriff’s raids on their two homes on Aug. 5, 2021.

The operation found no evidence of a crime, alleged Coolman, who said deputies were interested in the couple’s low electricity consumption, which some law enforcement agencies believe is linked to illegal marijuana growing.

“The deputies believed the defendants were stealing power to grow marijuana because their power consumption was low, and they said as much,” Coolman said in an email.

The retired couple is “thrifty,” and uses solar panels to reduce its overall power and electricity use, Coolman said.

Messages this week seeking comment from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department were not returned by Friday evening, Aug. 26.

The settlement has been finalized and two payments of $68,000 — totaling $136,000 — have been issued to the couple, Riverside County spokesperson Yaoska Machado said by email.

The lawsuit, which was dismissed Aug. 15, names as defendants Sgt. Julio Olguin and other sheriff’s deputies who were involved in the 2021 raid.

The complaint alleges that deputies used a battering ram to break down the side door of the couple’s first house in a quiet subdivision of Lake Elsinore. Nobody was home.

Deputies broke down multiple doors inside and spent hours rummaging through the couple’s belongings, the news release states. At some point, the deputies’ attention shifted to the couple’s second home in the same subdivision, where [CH] was home alone, Coolman said.

The 67-year-old said in the release that “uniformed, armed deputies banged on the door.”

They told her they had already broken into the couple’s other residence “because they believed she was involved in growing marijuana, and demanded to come inside,” the release states.

[CH] thought the deputies were soldiers because of their attire, the complaint said.

She came out in response to deputies’ repeated pounding on the door, according to the complaint. Deputies, led by Olguin, told her that “someone” had informed them the house was being used to grow marijuana.

[CH] agreed to talk to them, “believing she was being directly accused of a crime by a group of uniformed deputies, and she was not free to terminate the encounter,” the complaint said.

She did not grant permission to search their second home, but saw deputies photographing the home and doing a warrantless search of the garage for up to 15 minutes, the complaint said. Neighbors watched and documented the process as deputies searched the homes, wandering in and out for hours, the complaint alleges.

[JW] spoke to Olguin on the phone and asked deputies to leave the house, the complaint said. In this conversation, Olguin “admitted that the searches of the homes were illegal,” the complaint alleges.

Coolman alleged there have been other raids on homes in Riverside County based on similar theories, but “this is the only one I know of where there was no warrant and no apparent justification.”

According to the complaint, damages to several doors and door frames at the couple’s first home are estimated at nearly $6,000 before tax.

The couple alleged sheriff’s deputies violated the Fourth Amendment by doing a warrantless search of both homes, and “unreasonably” detaining [CH] by “accosting her while armed and in uniform.”

No evidence of a crime was found, no arrests were made and no charges were filed, Coolman said.

The Sheriff’s Department did not document what occurred, but Olguin gave the couple a receipt for damaged property, Coolman said.

“The way the Sheriff handled this situation was unreasonable and illegal,” Coolman said.  “Nobody’s home should be broken into based on a hunch about their use of electricity.”