No compensation for damage to house during police search

OLYMPIA -- Pierce County does not have to compensate the mother of a man convicted of killing a sheriff's deputy for damage to her house that was caused by the search for evidence, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

In a 7-2 ruling, justices found that the search, in which investigators removed two walls from Linda Eggleston's house after the October 1995 killing of Deputy John Bananola, wasn't an unconstitutional taking of property.

Her son, Brian Eggleston, was sentenced in January to more than 48 years in prison after his third trial in the deputy's death.

One of the walls was load-bearing, and removing it made the house uninhabitable. A judge later ordered the house to be preserved as a crime scene.

Eggleston also alleged federal civil-rights violations and settled for $100,000, said John Kuglin, an attorney for the county.

Kuglin greeted the ruling on the state constitutional issue with relief, because the case could have opened up all manner of claims against the government for use of its police powers, from compensation for property seized as evidence to payment for lost income during jury service.

"It makes it nice and clear that the government has the ability to function without having to pay people if its essential functions cause damages," Kuglin said.

Justices Barbara Madsen, Bobbe Bridge, Faith Ireland, Charles Smith, Charles Johnson and Susan Owens joined Justice Tom Chambers, who wrote the majority opinion.

Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and Justice Richard Sanders wrote separate dissents.

Alexander argued that Mrs. Eggleston should have been compensated because she wasn't a party to her son's crimes.

A telephone call to Mrs. Eggleston's attorney was not immediately returned yesterday.