Five years ago, a woman was murdered. Her boyfriend was convicted of 2nd degree murder, but her body was never found. The evidence for the conviction was solid, there was just no corpse.
Acting on a tip, a search warrant was issued. For the last two days, authorities have been digging up the back yard of the father of the convicted murderer. They jack hammered through the patio and removed all of the concrete and dug down to find the mass they thought was the body to be just buried rocks. No evidence at all was found linking the location to the disposal of the body.
The patio is destroyed, and all of the landscaping in this guy’s back yard is ruined. All of the grass and topsoil were pushed up into a mound in the corner.
Who is responsible for the restoration of this guy’s yard and patio?
I’ve heard stories where the police busted down doors at the wrong address (clearly a police screwup, not a misunderstanding) but the police and city were not held accountable to fix the damage. I suspect the homeowner will be stuck with any repair costs. Could vary with locality, though.
I don’t know about that level of damage, but I’ve (thankfully extremely rarely) had doors of one of our rental properties knocked down or damaged in a police search and you can get reimbursed for it. However the turnaroud on getting your reimbursement check is many months, so you have to do the repairs yourself if you want it fixed anytime soon, and probably won’t be able to wait until they pay you first.