Oklahoma City landlord says she’s ‘stuck in the middle’ over police raid damage
By Juliana Keeping, The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The soft-spoken landlord was shocked in late August to learn
Martinez, 61, an innocent third party to the criminal matter, now worries she'll be stuck with the
"I don't know what their thoughts were for busting up my sewer line," she said. "I would like to know if they've done this on other houses and how many times they've actually recovered drugs from a toilet that has been flushed."
The
The dust at the home has settled, but a question remains: Who will pay for the damage?
Who pays?
Martinez and her husband hired a plumber to fix the toilet and sewer, which cost about
They'd like their money back.
On
They repaired other smaller-scale damage that occurred during the raid themselves, like damage to the screen door, a door stop and linen closet.
While an investigation into the matter has yet to begin, it seems somewhat unlikely the city would pay for the damage to the home.
"I can tell you, generally, those are not approved unless the police department has done something in error," lead city attorney
In 32 years as an attorney, Smith can recall about 10 to a dozen instances in which a resident asked
He recalled that in only one case, in which police raided the wrong home, did the city pay a small amount after a tort claim was filed.
Martinez found this news upsetting.
"I'm stunned," she said.
Police Sgt.
That's all neither here nor there to Martinez.
She finds it unfair that she should be the one to pay for repairs when she did nothing wrong.
Smith said that while he understands, he questions the city's responsibility to pay for damage done in a gang unit search for illegal drugs.
"I can understand people saying, 'I wasn't the criminal, why should I have to pay?,' said Smith, the city attorney.
"But why should the city have to pay, either? We're fighting crime."
Meanwhile,
"Normally I would expect the city to pay a claim if it causes the damage," Henderson said.
"What I have seen are cases in which the city would ultimately seek repayment from the tenants themselves."
What's a tort?
A "tort" can be negligence or something done by accident, Henderson said.
"It's anything I do that's going to damage or cause you injury but typically doesn't rise to a criminal issue," he said.
The state's Governmental Tort Claims Act sets procedure where before anyone can take a state or local government to court, they must go through the tort claims process.
Martinez filed the proper paperwork with the city's clerk's office, including a claim form and supporting documents, like receipts for work done on the toilet and sewer line.
After that,
The city attorney's office bases its own recommendation on the department's findings and takes it to the
The Martinez case may highlight problems in the law, Henderson said.
What troubles Henderson is that the accused agency is tasked with investigating itself.
"There's an investigation by the same people accused of committing a tort in the first place," he said.
Henderson's additional concern is that an
A more typical scenario could entail police damaging the property of a person potentially responsible for a crime, Henderson said.
"Even if a claim is filed, it will be negotiated into a larger criminal issue," he said.
What's different is that Martinez is an innocent third party to the criminal activity taking place at the home.
"If the police, in investigating, don't realize that or gloss over it, they could potentially come to the wrong conclusion and try not to pay the claim, and then the owners will be faced with a decision on whether or not to sue," Henderson said.
Moving on
Martinez really doesn't have time for all of this.
She inherited her business by accident, purchasing homes from her elderly father when he began to slow down.
He passed away in 2011. Martinez quit her job at a call center to care for her mother, who has Alzheimer's disease.
Just before the
She's not sure whether she could take a step some choose in the tort claims process, to speak at city council to try to influence the council members' vote.
"It does make me mad and I might go, but I've never done anything like that before," she said. "I'm not good at public speaking."
She could sue the city if her claim is denied.
"If that's going to cost over
She has called her insurance company. No point on filling a claim there, either -- her plan includes a
"I am stuck in the middle," she said.
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