Posted on 07/23/2014 9:10:13 AM PDT by Ken H
Estelline, Texas settles with innocent, elderly motorist who had her cash seized during a traffic stop.
Police in Estelline, Texas are sorry they ever pulled over Laura Dutton. The 64- year-old woman was stopped on November 28, 2012 as she was returning from a trip to Amarillo on US Highway 287. Police Officer Jayson Fry, the city's lone officer, was manning a speed trap a few feet away from the sign marking the speed limit drop when she passed through Estelline.
Officer Fry says she was doing 61 MPH in a 50 MPH zone. He pulled her over, issued a ticket and asked if he could search her truck. She refused.
Officer Fry said he "smelled marijuana" so a drug dog was called in, and when the K-9 arrived thirty minutes later, it alerted. Dutton had no drugs, but she was carrying $31,000 in cash, the bills wrapped up as they had come fresh from the bank. She had recently earned the sum from the sale of 12.9 acres of land in Van Zandt County.
Despite the explanation, Officer Fry grabbed the cash and arrested Dutton, who had no criminal record of any kind, for "money laundering." Officer Fry handed the money over to Estelline City Manager Richard Ferguson.
Two months after the money had been taken from her, the charges were finally dropped and $29,640 returned to Dutton. In addition to the $1400 stolen from her by the city, Dutton was out $1050 in fees she had to pay to get out of jail the day after her arrest. She was never reimbursed for the travel expenses she incurred to get her money back.
Dutton decided to fight with a federal lawsuit challenging the city of Estelline for setting up a government almost entirely funded by speed traps. In 2012, speeding tickets generated 90 percent of the municipal budget. She argued that the marching orders for its officer was "go out there and get me some money" through the use of seizures.
When Dutton complained about the stolen money, the city did not investigate and all video tapes related to the arrest and the deposit of the money were "not saved." US District Judge Mary Lou Robinson reviewed the evidence and last month denied Officer Fry's assertion of immunity. She prepared the case to go to trial.
"There is sufficient evidence in this record for a jury to return a verdict in plaintiff's favor on her unconstitutionally prolonged detention/wrongful arrest/wrongful seizure claim," Judge Robinson wrote. "No reasonable officer would have arrested a suspect solely because his drug dog, certified or not, hit upon drug odors or drug residue on circulated cash."
Realizing there was no chance of surviving before a jury, Officer Fry's lawyers decided to settle the case last week for $77,500.
I often hear of “a few bad cops” giving all the others a bad name. The question then becomes; “Why don’t the good cops, turn in the bad cops?” The only comparison, and I will be the first to admit that it is an unfair one, is to Islam.
We are always told of the radical 10% that are the trouble makers, but we never hear anything from the other 90%, that rebukes the actions of the minority.
Same holds true of police, no matter how poorly or illegally an officer has acted, his brothers and sisters in blue will NOT speak up against him.
Another impediment to cleaning up law enforcement is that when an officer is found guilty of misconduct, the tax payers and not the officer are on the hook for any costs. The officer may lose their job, but the tax payer foots the bill.
So what can we do to fix this situation? Well as my old First Sergeant used to say; “Don’t complain unless you have a solution to the problem.” Well here is my idea.
Any and all monetary damages awarded to a plaintiff as a result of the actions of law enforcement officers, are to ONLY come from the offending departments or organizations pension fund.
Only when it hits home personally by weakening every officers retirement, will the good ones begin to turn in the bad ones. In time, department phycologists and training officers will do a better job of weeding out the nut jobs. Senior staff will do a better job of triple checking addresses before conducting a “no-knock” late night call to a suspect’s home. Officers will advise their partners that a course of action is not advised, rather than just going along.
And once this has happened, law enforcement might begin to gain some of the mountain of trust and respect that they have lost in past few years.
Well, there was some hope. Bummer.
Maybe the south should try to be more like Boston, NYC, D.C., Detroit, Chicago...
No thanks.
There is corruption everywhere, but at least in the south the women are easy on the eyes.
” I can never figure out why Texas is
considered such a bastion of freedom
around here.”
I think it was last year TX got hammered for extorting people to sign awa claim to money. They threatened arrest and DCF ifthey didn’t. No parrent, even innocent, would refuse that demand.
Why people think TX = freedom, I don’t know.
The private prison gets paid by the state (which often takes fed dollars) on a per inmate housed basis.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/4013
I know many fine, upstanding, trustworthy individuals, who also happen to be LEO. They are amazing, hilarious, God fearing, Constitutional individuals. The problem is not the individual, and I've told a number of them this. The problem starts when they strap that gun & badge on, and I suddenly go from friend and fellow American to a tattoo'd, facial haired scumbag. There's a serious problem with that.
Just because you live in one of the few free states in the north does not mean I need to “look at myself and clean house” before noting the incredible levels of awfulness and corruption in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode island, New York and New Jersey.
My sentiments, exactly.
Having spent a small amount of time in the field of journalism (got out when I realized that truth was in short supply), I could tell that this story was lacking, so to speak. I wanted to believe the individual officer was liable, but a quick search revealed that the taxpayer was the paymaster :(
Thanks for your reply!
The speed limit drop to 35 from 75 was deemed
unreasonable, so they had to up it to 50 mph.
********************************
That would still be too large of drop ,,75-50=25 mph exceeds the maximum 15mph change from one speed limit to the next that the D.O.T. allows,, they could enforce it for a while I guess .. until someone gets it to trial and wins.
Whats your point? Certainly not that TX is somehow less corrupt. Lets cut to the chase...TX is nothing special and, like KA, completely over hyped. You have more than your share of looney liberals and all the problems that plague the rest of the country. What you seem to have more of than any other state is chest beaters who’ve never been out of state or town. The world is a big place and your end of it isn’t as great as you might imagine.
Less corrupt than what?
Texas is less corrupt than New Jersey, New York or Massachusetts.
And Virginia certainly is.
I’m not sure where KA is, so I cannot comment on it.
The overwhelming majority of looney liberals in Virginia are transplants from the liberal hell-holes of the northeast.
I think so, too.
I think so, too.
Any time I'm on a jury and cops don't have videotape, the word of the officer in question is given slightly more credibility than your average used car salesman in my mind. Judgement is rendered accordingly.
Did he write her up for “munny londering”?
Really? I think you’re out of touch w/ reality. Southerners make out as though they’re some how better than the rest of the country. The fact is they’re no better or worse. Sadly, like you, they haven’t measured themselves rightly.
LOL, another one out of touch...TX (and the south in general) has their own home grown liberal. Sure, there are some from other places but the population of indigenous liberals has more than satisfied the need to keep ‘blue dog’ dems in power for generations. You guys crack me up...ya cant see the forest for the trees. Clean your own house before you criticize the north.
I invite you to come to Virginia and listen to the annoying northern accents of our chief liberal politicians and democrat organizers. The majority of the lib-tard a-holes who are destroying this Commonwealth moved here from points north. That is a fact.
I have lived here for 49 years. I KNOW what has happened to me state. I have witnessed it.
It is you who are out of touch with reality.
There are degrees of corruption, and if you cannot see that NJ, NY and MA are MORE corrupt than TX, VA and, for that matter most other places in the country, then you are not only out of touch, you are blind and deaf.
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