A federal judge has ruled against a South Bend woman who says police should compensate her for trashing her home during a mistaken SWAT raid.
Do police have the right to destroy your home as long they’re executing a valid search warrant?
U.S. District Judge Damon Leichty recently dismissed a case that Amy Hadley filed against South Bend and St. Joseph County police.
About two years ago South Bend’s SWAT officers had obtained a warrant to search Hadley’s home for a man they said was a dangerous fugitive. A South Bend officer said the department’s technology indicated that the fugitive had posted to Facebook from the home.
Hadley lives in the home in the 1800 block of East Calvert Street with her teenage son and daughter. Only her son was home at the time. He came out with his hands up as soon as police called into the house with a bullhorn. Hadley was still at work but called police and told them they didn’t know the fugitive.
Still, police threw tear gas canisters through shattered windows and entered the front door with flash-bang grenades. Nearly every porous object in the house was destroyed by the noxious fumes from the tear gas. Police caused a total of $16,000 in damage.
But Leichty cited a 2011 Court of Appeals ruling finding that, under the federal Constitution, police have the right to take or ruin property while exercising police powers. He sent the case back to the St. Joseph County court, where Hadley initially filed it, where she will try to pursue damages under the Indiana Constitution.
Representing Hadley is the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit civil liberties law firm that’s also litigating two mistaken police raid damage cases in Texas and another in Los Angeles. Hadley’s Arizona-based attorney, Marie Miller, says she wasn’t surprised by Leichty’s ruling.
"It largely hasn't been litigated until recently and so the courts seem to be struggling with it," Miller said. "They all seem to be latching on to different ideas about why the claims shouldn't go forward, which to us just signals there isn't one unifying theory for why they shouldn't go forward."
