Emery v. State

This is a civil case in which plaintiffs seek compensation for damage to a motor vehicle that resulted when state police officers, during a lawful seizure and search, cut holes in the body of the vehicle in search of bullets and ballistics data to be used as evidence in a homicide prosecution. The specific issue presented is whether the state must pay for private property, not contraband or otherwise subject to forfeiture, which is lawfully seized for evidentiary use in a criminal investigation and which is necessarily damaged or destroyed by the state in the performance of necessary…