Leo Lech didn’t rob anyone. He didn’t offer shelter to a suspected criminal. He had absolutely nothing to do with the armed standoff at his house in Greenwood Village, Colo., in 2015.
He didn’t deserve to see his house blown up by police rockets.
Nevertheless, an appeals court has ruled that Lech is not owed any compensation after police nearly destroyed his home in pursuit of a shoplifting suspect in June 2015.
The suspect had forced his way in at gunpoint while a nine-year-old boy was home alone, according to a police affidavit. He kicked the boy out and holed up in the house for a 19-hour standoff with police, who used gunfire and rockets to flush him out. SWAT officers also rammed a military-style armoured vehicle through the front door.
Insurance agreed to cover $350,000 in damage to the home, minus a $5,000 deductible, CBS Denver reports. However, Lech argues that he deserves approximately $580,000, which he says is the going rate for such a house. He also scoffed when the city offered to cover his deductible.
Lech has spent the last four years fighting for what he says would be fair compensation from the government.
“Under no circumstances should the government be able to blow up your house and render a family homeless,” Lech told NPR on Wednesday.
A panel of three judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals issued a unanimous ruling on the case Tuesday. They upheld an earlier court decision that the incident occurred while police were trying to enforce the law so Lech is not owed any compensation.
Lech’s lawyers had argued unsuccessfully to have the situation treated as a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s takings clause, which requires the government to provide just compensation when taking private property for public use.
Cmdr. Dustin Varney of the Greenwood Village police defended his actions in a 2015 interview with local station KUSA.
“My mission is to get that individual out unharmed and make sure my team and everyone else around, including the community, goes home unharmed,” he said at the time. “Sometimes, that means property gets damaged, and I am sorry for that.”
The city has steadfastly defended its police force and their tactics as appropriate.
In a statement to CBS Denver, the city said officers’ actions “were taken to preserve life and were at all times conducted in an appropriate manner and in accord with their recognized and lawful police powers.”
Robert Jonathan Seacat was arrested and later convicted of a long string of charges related to drugs, shoplifting and his standoff with police. He was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
Lech razed and rebuilt the home, but he told the Washington Post he had to dip into his retirement savings to do so.
He says the latest ruling is “unfair.” He’s thinking about appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, although he is not optimistic.
“It just goes to show that they can blow up your house, throw you out on the streets and say, ‘See you later. Deal with it,'” he said.
“What happened to us should never happen in this country, ever.”
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