NoHo Print Shop Destroyed by Swat Officers Won’t Be Reimbursed for Damages

NoHo Printing and Graphics on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, Calif., in September 2022. Google Maps/Screenshot via California Insider

The City of Los Angeles won’t need to reimburse the owner of a North Hollywood print shop that was damaged during a raid by Los Angeles Police Department SWAT officers, a federal judge ruled March 25.

In 2022, during the pursuit of a fugitive, officers fired tear gas, busted holes in the walls and ceiling, and destroyed printing machines and other equipment totaling around $60,000, of which the owner was never reimbursed.

The owner of NoHo Printing and Graphics, Carlos Pena, filed a complaint in July 2023 seeking compensation for the damages, but Monday’s ruling out of the U.S. District Court for Central California ruled against Mr. Pena, determining the August 2022 raid was a “valid use of police power,” according to a March 26 press release from Institute for Justice, a nonprofit national law firm representing Mr. Pena.

“The court recognized that the result was unfair, but it thought that the police are exempt from the Fifth Amendment,” said Jeffrey Redfern, one of Mr. Pena’s attorneys, in the press release. “But for more than 100 years, the Supreme Court has said that the police power is not exempt from just compensation under the Fifth Amendment.”

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge John F. Walter found that although what happened to the print shop was unfair to its owner, police shouldn’t be required to pay for damages under the Fifth Amendment’s Taking Clause, because they didn’t take anything from the print shop.

“Because no taking occurred, ‘as unfair as it seems,’ Defendant has no responsibility to compensate Plaintiff,” Judge Walter wrote in his ruling, according to the press release.

In August 2022, Mr. Pena was chased out of his print shop, which he has owned for over 30 years, after a man who was running from police entered and barricaded all the entrances, according to the press release.

Police surrounded the building, raided it, and captured the fugitive while causing thousands of dollars in damage. Both the city and Mr. Pena’s insurance refused to reimburse him.

“I’ve tried to do everything the right way this whole time,” Mr. Pena said in the press release. “I don’t even blame the police for what happened—they were trying to get a dangerous criminal off the streets. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be paid after the business I worked so hard to build was completely destroyed.”

Attorney Suranjan Sen, who also works for the institute, said police should have to pay for any damage they create.

“The government shouldn’t be able to continue hiding behind ‘police powers’ whenever it doesn’t want to compensate someone for destroying their property,” the attorney said in the same press release. “If the government breaks it, the government should have to buy it.”

According to the press release, attorneys for Mr. Pena plan to appeal.