A SWAT team destroyed his shop - now the city won’t cover repairs, owner says

Carlos Pena braced himself last summer as he stepped into the small business he’d spent more than three decades building from nothing. It had been 12 hours since a fugitive shoved Pena out of his print shop and barricaded himself inside and 51/2 hours since a Los Angeles Police Department SWAT team allegedly launched tear gas and stormed in, only to discover that the fugitive had eluded them.

At 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 4, Pena went inside his Noho Printing & Graphics to assess the damage: Tear gas permeated the shop. Copy machines and other electronics were ruined. Holes had been punched through doors, windows and the roof.

On Wednesday, Pena, 56, sued the city of Los Angeles, alleging that LAPD officers destroyed his life’s work and that city officials then spent months ignoring requests to cover the repairs. In a ninepage lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Central California, Pena does not accuse police of wrongdoing when they allegedly did more than $60,000 worth of damage to his business, because that’s what officers needed to do to keep the public safe, said Suranjan Sen, a lawyer with Institute for Justice, a nonprofit representing Pena. But Pena shouldn’t have to suffer the consequences - the city should pay to repair the damage, he said.

“The public used Mr. Pena’s property for a public benefit, for a public purpose, and in all fairness and justice, the public should have to pay for that,” Sen told The Washington Post. “It shouldn’t be Carlos whose life is ruined because of it.”

Mayor Karen Bass’s office did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment from The Post. LAPD spokesperson Lt. Letisia Ruiz declined to comment.

In the early afternoon of Aug. 3, Pena was doing some design work on his computer while a repairman tried to fix his copy machine, he told The Post. Around 1:30 p.m., they heard tires squealing and people yelling, causing the repairman to go to the back door to check things out. Peering outside, he beckoned Pena to see what was happening.

By the time he got to the back door, Pena saw that the repairman was already outside standing next to a group of U.S. marshals about 100 feet away, he said. Moments later, the fugitive that the marshals were pursuing appeared, knocked Pena back and tossed him out of his print shop. The man then barricaded himself inside as Pena sought refuge with the marshals.

An hours-long standoff began. More LAPD officers arrived. They surrounded the shop. A police helicopter flew overhead.

“It was chaos,” Pena said. Around 8 p.m., a police SWAT team raided the shop, firing more than 30 canisters of tear gas, Pena said. Re-emerging, they showed Pena photos of holes in the shop’s ceiling, asking if they’d been there before the standoff. They hadn’t, he told them. Sen said that, as far as he knows, the fugitive was never caught.

Around 1:30 the following morning, police ushered him back into his shop, Pena said. Within seconds, lingering tear gas choked him, he said, forcing police to equip him with a gas mask. Tear-gas canisters had blasted holes in the walls, roof and doors of the shop, the lawsuit claims. The gas itself “ruined virtually everything” in the shop - electronics, “very expensive and very fragile” commercial printing equipment and his inventory of printing supplies, including banners and T-shirts, according to the lawsuit.

Getting rid of tear gas residue is “one of the most daunting cleaning challenges,” according to an article from Aftermath Services, a biohazard and trauma cleaning company, which recommends simply throwing away any electronics that were exposed.

The total damage to Pena’s business was at least $60,000, his lawsuit alleges. His insurance provider won’t cover the cost because the policy excludes damage caused by the government, the suit adds.

Later that month, Pena requested that the city pay for repairs and replacements, according to the lawsuit. He followed up by phone in April but was allegedly told “sorry, we’re not liable.” He tried again in June but didn’t get a response then either, he said. He still has not received a formal denial to cover his costs, the suit states.

“We’re innocent, working, taxpaying people that are being hurt,” said Pena, who planned to pass the business to his son, “and nobody cares.”

Destroying Pena’s property without paying for it is unconstitutional, Sen said. Eminent domain allows the government to seize property to create a public benefit, such as roads, power lines or school buildings, but the Fifth Amendment requires they provide owners with “just compensation.” That principle also applies when the government creates a public benefit by intentionally destroying property. For example, if the government builds a dam that floods surrounding lands, it has to fairly pay property owners for that loss.

The same concept applies when police officers decide that, to keep the public safe, they need to enter your home or business to catch a fugitive and cause damage in the process, Sen told The Post.

Without a shop or equipment, Pena had to scramble, he told The Post. Another print shop that heard about his predicament sold him a copy machine for cheap. He bought a decades-old paper cutter like the one he’d used at the start of his career. With his humble and limited tools, Pena set up shop in his garage and resumed operations in January. There are certain aspects of his business that he hasn’t been able to bring back online - making large banners and laminated stickers, for example - because he lacks the equipment.

Operating in a diminished capacity, Pena said he’s lost “81 to 83 percent of business.”

Pena said he’d use any money he gets from his lawsuit to get back into a brick-and-mortar shop and fill it with the modern, versatile equipment he used to have. If he doesn’t get the money, he’ll have to keep grinding it out in his garage, which would probably force him to sell his house and move to one that’s less expensive, he said.

He hopes it doesn’t come to that.