Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Arizona

Re: Lost job and home over purposefully false and misleading news article

While you say that there have been no convictions, I note that you have not denied the accusations against you. Also, you say that the case against your neighbor has been dismissed but you say nothing about the case against you. If these allegations are true then there is not much you can do about the situation. And if you are still facing charges, you should focus on your defense rather than on bringing lawsuits.

For the remainder of this answer I will presume that you actually are innocent and that either the charges against you have been dropped or you have not been charged at all.

You and your neighbor can sue the felon who made these statements for defamation, but if he doesn't have enough money to pay a judgment you will have a hard time finding a lawyer to represent you.

Suing the newspaper will probably be more difficult. You haven't told us exactly what the article said, but if all it did was report that this man accused you of being involved then its reporting was accurate and it is not at fault. Newspapers are allowed to report what people say and do not become liable if it turns out that the person they quoted was lying. If the law worked this way, then news media would be afraid to cover many important matters.

On the other hand, if the article presented your involvement as a fact rather than an accusation, you would probably have a good case against the paper.

You might also have a claim against the police department if their tactics were unreasonable, but they will be judged according to the information that was available to them at the time. If they had good reason to believe there were drugs on the premises then they had ample basis for a warrant, and if they had reason to think people inside would become violent -- which happens quite often during drug-related searches -- then they were justified in using force. Even then, they would have to act within reason. Without more information, I can't say whether they acted reasonably or not,