‘Justice is done’: Former Naperville student wins her legal battle over AirPods theft ticket
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A jury found 20-year-old Amara Harris not liable Thursday in an unusual civil trial involving two former high school students, a set of disputed AirPods and a ticket issued by a Naperville police officer nearly four years ago.
An officer assigned to Harris’ former high school, Naperville North, wrote her a ticket in 2019 that accused her of stealing another girl’s AirPods, a violation of municipal law.
Harris and her lawyers maintained that she picked up the other student’s AirPods accidentally, mistaking them for her own. Supported by her mother, she declined to pay a fine or settle the case.
The city of Naperville took the matter all the way to a jury trial at the DuPage County Courthouse, with a city attorney arguing for the prosecution.
The six-person jury reached its verdict Thursday after about four hours of deliberation. Harris said after the verdict that she’s relieved the case is over and she can focus on her classes at Spelman College in Atlanta. She immediately hugged her mother and grandmother after the judge read the decision.
“Justice is done,” Harris said. Her mother, Marla Baker, added that God was on her daughter’s side.
One of Harris’ attorneys, S. Todd Yeary, said the jury made the right decision. He called the ticketing system a “money grab” and the decision to prosecute Harris “malicious.” He added that he’s glad Harris will be able to move forward and build on her good reputation.
Yeary, a former chief executive officer of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, is one of two well-known civil rights lawyers who represented Harris.
The resources devoted to the AirPods case have added to debates over the widespread practice of police ticketing students at school, documented last year by the Tribune and ProPublica in the investigation “The Price Kids Pay.”
Because Harris’ case involved a civil violation, the burden of proof was less than for a criminal charge. Finding her liable would have required that a “preponderance of the evidence” supported the allegation, or that it more than likely happened. The maximum penalty for violations of the theft ordinance is a $500 fine, in addition to a $100 court fee. There was no threat of jail time.
The trial included two days of testimony from a variety of witnesses, including school employees, the owner of the disputed AirPods and Harris.
The AirPods’ owner, who testified Tuesday, said she noticed her ear buds had gone missing one afternoon and reported it to the school. A few days later, a friend showed her that her AirPods, which had been previously paired with the friend’s computer, were visible on her screen but had been relabeled as “Amara’s AirPods” instead of the owner’s name.
The AirPods’ owner said she reasoned that Harris had taken them during a class they shared, and she reported it to a dean. The dean then involved the school resource officer, who later gave Harris the ticket for theft.
Naperville prosecutor Joseph Solon Jr. argued that it was clear Harris was “caught with her hand in the cookie jar.”
On Wednesday, Harris testified that she had lost her own AirPods and that when she retraced her steps, she found a pair in the learning commons that she thought were hers.
She said that at first they “wouldn’t work” because they weren’t paired with her phone. But she said she was able to connect them later without getting a notification that the AirPods didn’t belong to her. She said the name automatically changed on the AirPods when paired.
Harris’ lawyers said taking the AirPods was an innocent mistake that anyone might have made. They also focused on the credibility of the Naperville police officer who issued the ticket, Juan Leon.
Leon testified Tuesday that he “used discretion” to issue the ticket after Harris’ mother refused to talk to him, which Baker disputed in her own testimony Wednesday.
Yeary emphasized that Leon said under oath that he didn’t know whether Harris “knowingly” stole the AirPods. He said Leon basically admitted to writing a ticket because he “got mad” at her mom.
“That should be chilling to anyone who has children,” Yeary said in his closing statement.
Though Solon established during the trial that the serial number on the AirPods in Harris’ possession matched the one from the owner’s set, Harris said she hadn’t known that.
“When was the last time a 17-year-old kid checked the serial number on their AirPods?” her other attorney, Juan Thomas, asked Tuesday.
Linda LaCloche, a spokesperson for the city of Naperville, said in a statement that the city respects the jury’s decision.
“There was sufficient evidence to establish probable cause that a violation of the city’s ordinance occurred. The defendant chose trial by jury and the jury is the ultimate decider of the facts,” the statement said. “We are glad that this matter has come to a conclusion. The defendant wanted her day in court and now that she has had it we are ready to move on.”
ProPublica and the Tribune first reported on Harris’ case last year as part of “The Price Kids Pay,” in which reporters documented 12,000 tickets Illinois students received over nearly three years for violations including possession of vaping devices, disorderly conduct and truancy. Fines associated with the tickets can run into the hundreds of dollars.
The investigation also found that Black students at Naperville North High School were almost five times more likely than their white classmates to receive tickets. Harris is Black.
Most students who receive municipal ordinance citations admit liability and pay the fine. Because of the lower burden of proof, fighting the tickets is difficult and costly. Baker has said the family spent about $2,000 on legal fees before a nonprofit organization chipped in to help.
