Posted on 02/06/2014 10:34:43 AM PST by Altariel
WINNEMUCCA, Nev. (MyNews4.com & KRNV) -- Imagine getting pulled over for a traffic stop, and instead of getting a ticket, the officer takes your money. All of it.
It happened to one man recently, who was driving on Interstate 80 through Northern Nevada. Now, he is fighting back.
It's a case that focuses on our rights: Can law enforcement take your money or property, even if you are not charged with a crime?
The driver was Tan Nguyen of California. He has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office and District Attorney. His attorney, John Ohlson said, "The basis of the stop was he was going 78 in a 75. The stop ended in a search, and the deputy took $50,000 from my client that belonged to him."
Nguyen was not arrested. He was not charged with any crime. But Humboldt County Sergeant Lee Dove decided to confiscate a bundle of cash Nguyen happened to be carrying: $50,000 worth. Sergeant Dove even posed for a photo after seizing the cash.
In this incident report, Sergeant Dove observed that Nguyen seemed "nervous", was "argumentative", and that the car smelled of marijuana. No drugs were found during the stop.
Nguyen was not cited for doing anything illegal, although Sergeant Dove wrote in his report, "I felt he was not part of the legal traveling public," which he cited as justification for taking Nguyen's money.
When asked why Nguyen had so much cash, Ohlson responded, "I think it doesn't matter. I think the point is as long as there is U.S. currency in circulation, and we're allowed to have it, you can carry it."
This case seems to raise a lot of questions about all of our rights as citizens. The Humboldt County Sheriff Ed Kilgore was asked if he had any concerns about how the money was seized during this stop.
"At this point, I can't comment, since its an active litigation," Kilgore said.
But Humboldt County Assistant District Attorney Kevin Pasquale responded by saying, "If we think the money was obtained illegally, we have a right to seize it."
Does law enforcement have that kind of power? That's the question. This case is now headed to federal court, where a judge will decide whether authorities had a right to take Nguyen's money.
"You can have $50 and decide to buy drugs with it," Ohlson concluded. "But until you by the drugs, there's no crime."
Ohlson says he has heard of several other similar cases, where people had their money seized even though they were not charged with a crime. So far, only one known lawsuit has been filed.
> They’ll test the cash for exposure to drugs and of course they’ll find something. Say, “Bye, bye cash.”
Go to drug lockup, grap cocaine, smear the dust on the bills and voila! Instant ownership...i wonder if the D.A. and any of his officers are living above their means...
“You didn’t bling that.”
Touche!
How fascinating that you try to paint the victim as a criminal without any facts to support that information.
It is the police, not the victim, who violated the Constitution here.
The same Constitution to which you claim to give lip service.
Look, they probably have a very expensive SWAT team to support. Thought crimes will be the next way of generating revenue .... they just think you are thinking bad thoughts and they seize your bank accounts and property ... just like their big brothers at the IRS.
Thieves deserve death.
Doesn’t matter if they happen to be carrying a badge.
Have you been asleep for the past 20 years? This unconstitutional crap spans several administrations.
Challenge Accepted!
There are multiple constitutional reasons that you should oppose the War on Drugs — I would go so far as to assert that one cannot be a constitutionalist and, simultaneously, support the War on Drugs.
First, let's take a look at the despicable practice of precedence *spit* — even by precedence we see that a constitutional amendment was needed to allow the federal government to regulate a particular substance: alcohol. (I despise precedence for the fact that it is functionally the judiciary plating the children's game of telephone with your legal rights and is often elevated above the Constitution itself… as we shall see.)
Second, let us investigate by what authority
they claim the power.
The commerce clause, as pertaining to interstate commerce, which reads as:
[The Congress shall have Power] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes
The courts have held that the congress can regulate intrastate commerce via this clause because it impacts interstate commerce
. (See wickard)
Indeed, the courts have determined that non-commerce can be regulated in this manner as well. (See Raich)
[In Justice Thomas's dissent, the first paragraph claims the ruling means "the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers."]
Third, given the origins of the authority we clearly see that the power to regulate interstate commerce is exactly the same as the power to regulate foreign commerce. Taking this, we must consider that the actions of asserting the power to regulate inside a foreign nation exactly mirrors the regulating of commerce within a State; doing so would rightly be considered by the foreign power as a Declaration/Act of War, and the accomplishment of that assertion would involve the subjugation of that foreign nation's government — so the War on Drugs is, definitionally, the waging of war [or consequence thereof] upon the States themselves.
You evidently paint with the same brush. Have the police been charged and convicted of violating the Constitution? No? Then your point is moot.
If I was a cop I would feel honor bound to turn in the whole $50.
Is it against the law to transport your own property if that property is currency?
Is there a law requiring that all currency transfers be completed a certain way that excludes the owner?
Are there are limits as to how much currency you may have in your possession at any one time?
Are there laws limiting the places where you may have your currency in your possession, such as public highways?
Did the currency itself break some law and needs to be punished?
Is this some sort of racial thing?
"That sure is an unusual name...you from around here, boy?"
It happens quite often, more than you want to think. The focus is on the Interstates. 10, 40, 80. Very well known drug smuggling routes from California to the East Coast. Particularly I40 Arizona-New Mexico-Texas.
They catch a lot of Gamblers and poker players traveling to and from different states gambling tournaments.
It’s actually kinda rare that Nevada would pull this on a traveler as it’s a heavily gambling state.
The man will get his money back, but it’s going to take months and a lawyer.
Civil forfeiture can work properly as long as the individuals have no incentive to game the system. In other words, the state, county, city, precinct don’t get to keep a dime of the money. It should go directly to U.S federal General obligation debt.
The perfect solution though is to do away with civil forfeiture where there is no conviction. It’s the only thing I hold against Reagan. It’s an obomination.
That may be true but mac daddy along with his mindless administration have refinded it to a level that is accepted and defended like no other administration.
It appears to be a badge of honor that is worn by his administration and shoved into the face of the American people.
Mac daddy has no time for the parts of the constitution that He dones not agree with and will disregard them whenever he wants without a second thought and or fear of being questioned.
Corruption in his administration has reached a level that light years beyond any other administration.
DA, Kevin Pasquale responded by saying, "If we think the money was obtained illegally, we have a right to seize it
Law enforcement has changed. Now it's not law enforcement, it's feeeelings of law.
He will win in court. And it should be millions because of civil rights violation.
They can make laws to shoot speeders but it still does not make it just.
might as well close the US court system because we now have little tin gods with badges on the streets of America to exact their own version of law
It happens in Mexico all the time. That’s why I always kept a separate wad of cash on me whenever I drove into Tijuana.
Are you really sure you’d turn in the whole $5??
.50, sure!
Wow, what honesty. You’d turn in a lowly nickle???
“When I hear of stories like this I always wonder how the cash was found. Are these vehicles being searched without cause as well?”
What they do is make subjective claims, like “I smelled pot”. Prove he was lying. Or they used trick ponies, a name given to the “Drug Dogs” that alert on a secret command.
The worst part is that these cops know they are hitting up innocent people. They just don’t care. In Texas they recently got hammered in court for extorting people to sign away their claim the money in total, or they’d bring in DCF onto their children.
Well of course any parent would give up the money, no matter how innocent, to protect their kids from that. Cops are thieves.
This is also part of why the claim “There are good cops,” is a lie. The good cops know EXACTLY what is going on, and they do....nothing.
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