South Bend Mom’s Fight for Compensation After Police Wrecked Her Home Heads to State Court After Supreme Court Turns Down Appeal

WASHINGTON—Amy Hadley’s South Bend home was wrecked in June 2022 when police raided it looking for a fugitive who was never there and who had no connection to the family. After the government agencies involved in the raid rejected Amy’s pleas for compensation, she sued with the Institute for Justice (IJ) under both the federal and Indiana constitutions. After the Supreme Court declined to consider her case today, it will now proceed in state court on her state claims, alone.

“The Supreme Court’s decision allows unconstitutional, unjust practices to continue while the lower courts struggle over this issue,” said Institute for Justice Attorney Marie Miller. “The federal courts have failed to enforce the Fifth Amendment’s demand of just compensation for Amy, but the state courts now have a chance to get it right under the Indiana Constitution.”

A law enforcement officer believed that a fugitive in Amy’s case was using social media from Amy’s home. But the officer was wrong. Amy’s teenage son was the only one there when the police surrounded the house and demanded that occupants come out with their hands up. Police knew instantly that the boy was not the person they were seeking and did not suspect him of any crimes, and he insisted that nobody else was inside the house.

Amy and her daughter arrived soon after. They too truthfully insisted that they did not know the fugitive and that their security cameras would have alerted them if the man were in the home. Police dismissed their pleas and launched tear gas grenades through the windows, shattering them and filling the beds with glass and the air with noxious fumes, and ransacked the place. After searching the home attic-to-basement, the officers had to face the fact that they had made a major blunder.

Because tear gas polluted the air and broken glass filled their beds, Amy and her family slept in their car and other places until the fumes dissipated. Their clothes, electronics, and other personal items were destroyed by tear gas. The family’s kitten, inside the home throughout the raid, survived but was distressed.

In the days that followed, Amy tried to get information and compensation from the responsible government agencies. The authorities pointed fingers at each other with none taking responsibility. Her homeowners’ insurance policy covered only some of the damage. So, she was left to personally shoulder thousands of dollars’ worth of damage.

While federal courts have turned down several cases from property owners seeking compensation under the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, state constitutions often provide greater protection. Article 1, Section 21 of the Indiana Constitution provides that “[n]o person’s property shall be taken by law, without just compensation.” Last year IJ successfully concluded the case of a Texas woman whose home was wrecked in a SWAT raid. A jury awarded Vicki Baker nearly $60,000 under the Texas Constitution.