If police raid a home in search of a somebody who doesn’t live there, who pays for repairs?

Kim Layson was on her way to drop her daughter off at school when her boyfriend, Stephen Ranieri, called to tell her that her home security system had been triggered unexpectedly.

Metropolitan Police Department SWAT officers and armored vehicles had rolled in, shredding her two-story home’s front, back, and garage entrances. Police were serving a search warrant for a man, but it turned out he hadn’t lived at the address in years, having been a resident there before Layson bought the house.

Since then, the Metropolitan Police Department said it would be covering the damages from the Aug. 21 raid on Layson’s home and that Layson wasn’t part of any criminal investigation. But Layson said the trauma she suffered was incalculable.

“I appreciate that they are paying for the physical damage, but what about the emotional distress this has created in my life,” she said. “Metro cleared my name to the media, but it’s still embarrassing. This is usually a quiet neighborhood.”

Layson said she has since sent about $25,000 worth of repair invoices to Metro as she undergoes the process of repairing her damaged house. In such cases, however, legal experts said the outcome was often uncertain for homeowners and renters left wondering who would pay for the cleanup.

‘When you bust down a door, you can’t just un-bust it’

Local defense attorney Lukas McCourt said that it is rare for law enforcement in Southern Nevada to execute SWAT warrants on the wrong property, though not unheard of.

“Depending on the level of crime the person is being charged with, especially if SWAT is being called in, it’s going to be a high-level felony,” McCourt said. “They will go in with brute force and knock doors down, break windows, and if you’re a renter, then 100 percent you’re going to be left holding the bag for the damages.”

A 2021 law enacted by former Gov. Steve Sisolak sought to raise the bar for which so-called no-knock warrants could be issued. The law requires officials to explicitly seek a no-knock warrant from a judge, and such a warrant must demonstrate that the offender presents a “significant and imminent threat to public safety.”

Since these warrants generally target high-level offenders, executing them can admittedly be a dangerous endeavor, McCourt said. And that may sometimes lead to officers taking extreme action in the heat of the moment.

“I think no matter what, you’re dealing with a human element with these police officers,” McCourt said. “They get amped up. They definitely are doing a dangerous job, but sometimes they’re just meeting the situation with a lot more force than is necessary.”

McCourt continued, “When you bust down a door, you can’t just un-bust it.”

Andre Lagomarsino, a lawyer whose firm specializes in civil action against law enforcement, said that a “reasonableness” standard evaluates officers’ decisions. This means their actions are judged based on what they knew at the time rather than with the benefit of hindsight.

However, Lagomarsino said that detectives have resources to determine the whereabouts of a suspect, including surveillance, skip tracing, and utility records. Mistaking these things, Lagomarsino added, is not typically a viable defense in court.

“Sometimes, if they don’t do their due diligence, they have to pay,” Lagomarsino said.

Multiday standoff in Henderson

Sometimes a police response, even when it does happen at the correct address, can cause damage to neighboring properties that weren’t the focus of the initial enforcement, as was the case with a 2024 Henderson standoff.

Two weeks after the incident at Layson’s house, the Henderson City Council voted unanimously to approve a roughly $160,000 settlement to State Farm Fire and Casualty Company after a multiday standoff on Callen Falls Avenue in Henderson in April 2024.

In that search, a man was found dead after the standoff with the Henderson Police Department, with his death later ruled a suicide by the Clark County coroner’s office and the cause of death being attributed to the combined effects of oxycodone, fentanyl, amphetamine and clonazepam.

A warrant for the unit he was living in was expanded to the entire structure in the 200 block of Callen Falls Avenue, near Galleria Drive and North Water Street, and SWAT officers deployed chemical munitions, destroying the facade of a neighboring unit.

Ultimately, the city paid $99,961 for damages to the structure, $43,730 in personal property damages and $21,523 in additional living expenses to the affected claimant, who, according to documents attached to a meeting agenda from earlier this month, is Marty Lacroix.

Lacroix, now a Summerlin resident, declined to comment for this article. A spokesperson from State Farm and the city of Henderson did not respond to requests for comment.

Metro investigating internally

Layson said that the damage done to her home, on Melridge Road near West Warm Springs Road and South Durango Drive, was extensive. The frame of her house was left bent and its drywall was punctured in countless places.

Officers later told the couple, according to Ranieri, that SWAT officers searched another residence where the suspect had once lived, but found nothing.

“What a freaking waste of resources, time, and money,” Ranieri stated in an online post detailing the raid. “Doing this to people’s homes, scaring the s—- out of them, and then making them deal with the aftermath is some BS.”

Metro initially told Layson it wouldn’t be covering the costs of the damage, Layson said.

Asked about the search days later, a Metro public information officer said Metro would be covering the damages and that Layson was “not part of any criminal investigation.”

“LVMPD does have a process in place through our Risk Management section to handle such claims, and unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding, this claim was prematurely denied,” the emailed Metro statement read. “LVMPD is currently investigating this incident internally.”

Ranieri said that, after his post gained traction online, Metro officials reached out, asking to meet with him and Layson, ultimately agreeing to compensate them for claims the department initially denied.

‘A coin toss’

The Institute for Justice, a nationwide nonprofit law firm known for suing law enforcement agencies and officers after they seize or destroy property, also met with Ranieri on Thursday.

Jeffrey Redfern, a lawyer with the firm, pointed out that, like in Layson’s situation, most insurance policies don’t cover “acts of government.” As a result, homeowners whose property is damaged in mistaken SWAT raids often have to cover the repair costs themselves.

“Getting dangerous criminals off the street is a legitimate function of the government, but when it destroys innocent people’s property in that process, it must provide them with compensation,” the Institute for Justice website reads.“One unlucky person should not be left paying for a public service like this.”

While the organization advocates for this principle to be consistently upheld, Redfern said that, in practice, whether victims receive payment is essentially “a coin toss.”

“There are 100 to 200 SWAT raids every day in the United States — most of them routine warrant services,” he said. “When it comes to major destruction, we’re hearing about cases every few weeks. Whether those affected are compensated seems to depend on whether the claim reaches someone with policymaking authority, such as a city council member, or the mainstream media.”

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com. Contact Casey Harrison at charrison@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Casey_Harrison1 on X or @casey-harrison.bsky.social on Bluesky.