Posted on 03/02/2012 5:09:12 PM PST by Altariel
A judge this week ruled that an elderly couple could sue the San Francisco Police Department and other federal agents over what the couple claims was an illegal raid on their San Francisco home.
According to court documents, Malaquias and Cayetana Reynoso were inside their home on June 18, 2009, when officers with the SFPD and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives forced their way into the house and held them at gunpoint for five hours while they searched the property.
The couple -- both were in their 70s at the time -- claim the officers refused to let them go to the bathroom unattended or take their medication. When the officers left, Malaquias Reynoso said he noticed $200,000 in cash had "disappeared" from his bedroom during the search.
When he confronted the officer, the cop allegedly pointed a gun Malaquias Reynoso's head and said "go back in that house or I'll blow you [sic] head off."
Agent Megan Long, the ATF, and the U.S. government asked the court to dismiss the couple's complaint, but U.S. District Judge Susan Illston refused, noting that, as the Reynoso's claimed, officers took the money without reporting it as part of the search. She also disagreed with the defendants who claimed the Reynosos failed to state a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to court documents.
"Defendants knew that plaintiffs, who were in their seventies, had no criminal record," the judge wrote. According to the complaint, the search resulted in Malaquias suffering a 'complete physical and mental collapse, necessitating his being carried off to a hospital.'"
Illston, however, dismissed claims of "unreasonable force" and unlawful seizure of property under the Federal Tort Claims Act, finding that the federal defendants had immunity.
Matt Dorsey, spokesman with the S.F. City Attorney's Office, told SF Weekly they aren't too worried about these allegations.
"No findings have been reached about any of the factual allegations, and the city is confident it will prevail at trial with respect to claims against the San Francisco Police Department," Dorsey said.
Well, 9/10 times that someone has a machine gun in their home, they are a gang banger or a drug dealer. Does that mean the feds can seize any machine gun they find, without bothering to establish that the person is unlawfully in possession of it?
I doubt you’ll carry your logic to the point of saying “Viva la war on guns!”.
“If you’ve got $200,000 in paper money stashed away, you’re either an idiot or a criminal.”
Maybe, but being an idiot is not illegal.
Yes, 2000 hundred-dollar bills would weigh 2000 grams, or roughly 4.4 pounds. A stack of 50 bills is 2.61 inches wide, 6.14 inches high, and I figure no more than 0.43 inches tall, if you double the actual height of the individual bills to account for lack of compression. A men’s shoebox is 10.125 inches wide, 14.75 inches long, and 5.625 inches tall, so you could fit 4 x 2 x 13 stacks in a shoebox, or 5200 bills in it.
So, if the bills were all hundreds, it wouldn’t even fill half a shoebox. You could fit $200k in fifties in a shoebox easily as well.
Well, then - I guess it's OK in your Fascist little mind for the security forces to steal it...
Change the subject when you're looking like an idiot. Thumbs up!
“$200,000 in cash, in your house? Who does that?”
I personally know 2 people that probably have at least that much cash on hand!
Show me where I said that. Throw up a straw man to distract from your idiocy. Thumbs up!
I wouldn't be surprised. Most drug war advocates have no problem with the BATFags taking away scary guns, justified or not.
Well, on FR, especially considering his handle, I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt.
People who don’t trust banks. People who have memories of or are familiar with financial controls during the depression. People who have studied what went on during the collapse in Argentina. People who want to live under the radar for whatever reason. I can think of many types of people who do this as well.
Correct. The only question I have is why the couple didn’t have it in a concealed safe, and of course I am assuming they did not. There are many companies now that specialize in the installation of small safes for just this purpose; they are very good at what they do and the likelihood is that the safes will never be found.
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