Alethea
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Curious to know if homeowners who have property damage due to LE investigations can later launch a civil suit against a defendant in a trial to recover damages?
The law review article I linked goes over state by state what different courts have said on the issue. It’s much easier to bring tort claims like that against individuals than to try to hold the state responsible through the theory that the damage is a “taking” for which you must be reimbursed. A few people pointed out that cities and states have voluntary programs to reimburse people for damage done during an investigation. Much of the law revolves around when for example LE breaks down a defendant’s door - usually in that case it’s too bad so sad, you “caused” the damage yourself. But with innocent third parties, I’m sure there’s more leeway since they have clean hands and were cooperating.
I forget which podcast it was - maybe Criminal - but there’s a company that specializes in cleaning and restoring murder scenes. They try to restore the house to what it looked like before the crime. Presumably that’s paid for by the state so there’s definitely some room for restitution and reimbursement. Especially when it’s something that we think “the public” should pay for (through taxes) as a community.