When Amara Harris was a junior at Naperville High School in 2019, she realized that she had lost her airpods. As a result, she went back to the table in the area where students get together before class.
When she got there, she found a pair of AirPods. Assuming they were her’s, she grabbed them and continued her day. But when she was told that the serial number of the AirPods she grabbed matched the number of a student’s pair, Harris immediately turned them in to the school dean so they could be returned, according to NBC News.
Despite this, Harris was accused of stealing the Bluetooth headphones two weeks later after an officer from the Naperville Police ticketed her for $100. Harris denied paying the fine, claiming she never stole the headphones.
This led to an ensuing four-year legal battle that ended in August 2023, when it was found that she did not steal the Airpods and was not required to pay the $100 fine for violating the ordinance against theft.
Now, the recent Spelman College graduate is getting back at the city of Naperville, and the members of the police department who accused her of stealing the Airpods.
In a $20 million civil rights lawsuit, Harris claims that she was the victim of a police department that has a history of “improperly issuing tickets to students for minor infractions, and disproportionately targeting students of color,” according to the lawsuit.
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“It was just very hard because I was in school with the accusation,” Harris said. “It was a shocking surprise to me that took a really huge toll on my mental state.
“I was angry. I was sad. I felt that I was targeted.”
Harris’ mother, Marla Baker, said her daughter, once an outgoing cheerleader, now barely speaks above a whisper and keeps to herself.
“I try to hold my tears back because I know she’s fighting through depression, and she’s fighting through anxiety. She is building up trust for people again,” Baker said. “She is persevering through all of those things right now and she is getting back to that big personality, that big smile.”
It’s estimated that Harris had to attend nearly 50 hearings before her case went to trial and she had to constantly travel back and forth from Atlanta (where Spelman College is located) and Naperville to fight her case, according to NBC News.
The two members of the Naperville Police Department Harris named in her lawsuit are Juan Leon, the man who originally ticketed her, and Sgt. Jonathan W. Pope, Leon’s supervisor.
Despite the lawsuit, Naperville City Attorney Mike DiSanto claims both the city and the police department handled the case perfectly, as the allegations made against them are “without merit,” per the report from NBC News.