Posted on 04/25/2016 11:10:30 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Attorneys for a refugee from Burma say Muskogee County sheriff’s deputies wrongfully took money from the man meant for a church, a Christian band, and an orphanage in Thailand.
The man, who is a U.S. citizen living in Dallas, appeared in court in Muskogee Monday morning.
He’s now charged with acquiring proceeds from drug activity.
However, Eh Wah did not have any drugs in his possession when he was pulled over in Muskogee.
According to the deputy’s report, Wah was pulled over for a broken tail light and was not arrested. The deputy said his K-9 indicated an alert in the vehicle, and the deputy searched it.
No drugs or paraphernalia were found, only cash.
Court documents show Wah was managing a band from his home country of Burma.
Sheriff’s deputies seized $32,000 in cash from a gift bag in Wah’s car that he says was raised from concert ticket sales, offerings collected by churches, and donations from individuals meant for the Dr. T. Thanbyar Christian Institute, a nonprofit Karen Christian liberal arts education institute in Burma.
Wah also had more than $7,000 in proceeds from CD sales during the tour.
About $1,000 of the seized cash was in envelopes with the name of the orphanage in Thailand on them.
In total, court records show deputies seized a total of $53,249 in cash from Wah.
The claimants of the cash deny it was used to facilitate the sale of any controlled dangerous substance.
Wah does not have a criminal record. He’s now free on a $5,000 bond.
He is due back in court in July for the criminal charge.
What criminal charge?
And I do not mean their trumped up one.
If this is true, that deputy should be promptly fired.
I bet he was on his way to the IRS office to declare it.
America should be broken up under RICO.
Theft by the state.
If you find out, pls let me know.
I read the article 3x, and it still makes no sense.
The criminal charge is "having CASH !"
Cash is NO LONGER LEGAL TENDER under the current administration unless it can be tracked and taxed !
You need to have a paper trail before you have a proper trial !
Furthermore, you are "guilty" , until you can prove your innocence (Violation of the Constitution ? Bill of RIGHTS ? ).
Government officials routinely seize cash in private possession. Bills are the property of the government and may be recovered at any time for any cause.
I guess they could charge him for bad Burmese music...
1) seizure of assets without due process needs to end.
2) K-9 “alerting” needs to be ruled insufficient evidence for probable cause.
No wonder why the currency is no longer backed by precious metals
It relies on "faith" in the government, a fiat currency.
What happens when you lose 'faith' in the government ?
"He’s now charged with acquiring proceeds from drug activity".
If he had just quietly given up the money, there would have been no charge. But he went to court to demand the money back, so they charged him.
He can now either accept a plea bargain which will involve him giving up the money, or go to trial, and wind up spending lots of money on lawyers, with the risk of going to jail.
Forfeiture needs to be abolished.
Yes...
2) K-9 “alerting” needs to be ruled insufficient evidence for probable cause.
...and yes.
The Cops are just playing by the existing rules, nothing to see here.
Yes and yes.
"Probable" means "more likely than not".
Police depts need to keep statistics on K-9 "alerting", versus drugs actually found. A K-9 who's alarms do not work out more than 50% of the time shall no longer be "PROBABLE" cause.
Asset forfeiture is pretext for cop robbery of people that carry cash instead of digital money that said govt can track and prevent you accessing at their discretion.
Har har... They do this everywhere. Serfs shouldn’t be carrying that much of the kings script...
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