Posted on 01/22/2010 12:23:42 AM PST by The Magical Mischief Tour
LAWRENCE COUNTY, Tenn. -- Alana Jacobs and her boyfriend Mark Suratt say they have been wronged by the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department. "It's not right,” Jacobs said. “There's nothing right about it. It's completely unjust."
In August 2008, deputies seized a long list of tools and electronics from their house west of Lawrenceburg. The deputies had a search warrant to look for stolen car parts. Jacobs and Suratt were arrested on theft charges that night, but a year later, the charges were dismissed. When the couple tried to get their things back, they found almost everything had been sold in an Internet auction by the county. "Most of them sold on the Internet on govdeals.com," Jacobs told Channel 4. "It was sold by the time we went to court," Suratt said.
Sixty-five confiscated items, including tools they had receipts for, and tools that belonged to their relatives, were gone. "They took my daddy's table saw, and daddy's band saw," Suratt said. “Helpless is the only word I can use to describe it,” said Jacobs. In June, a judge ruled the county didn't comply with the state forfeiture laws and ordered the county to return the items, but it was too late.
Now an attorney for the county is offering to settle the case for $7,500 in exchange for a dismissal of a civil suit Suratt filed against the county. The couple estimated they are out $100,000, including the time Suratt lost from work as a brick mason. "You have no idea how desperate you can feel, and how helpless you can feel, knowing they can come in your house and take anything they want and leave you high and dry,” Alana told Channel 4. The Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department did not return our phone calls, nor did the attorney representing Lawrence County in the case.
Okay, I guess the only question I have is this...
These items were “seized” by search warrant as, I suppose evidence of a crime.
if so, then all the items should have remained in evidence until the court either found them guilty or not guilty or the case was dismissed before any action could be taken regarding the items seized.
Wonder what would of happened if the case had gone to court and the accused demanded to “see” the evidence.
Uh, well we sold it, your honor...
Some hot attorney...
"Hey, man, I can get you 7% of what you lost! Whaddya say?"
Sounds more like the execution of a business plan than a search warrant.
Bad law.
If the county is offering to settle I’d say they screwed this up.
If these folks have proof of the value of their stuff they should stay with the civil suit.
“If these folks have proof of the value of their stuff they should stay with the civil suit.”
I am all in favor of their getting all the can for an illegal
action by the county.
I know that area, and most people like them barely have a
pot to pee in.
If they get the 100,000, most likely 95,000 will be as punitive damages.
Hopefully they will be entitled to punitive damages.
I only say I hope they have proof of the worth of the merchandise because there is always the chance they’ll get less than what is offered should they go to trial.
Otherwise, the good sheriff will be making patrols on a used bicycle...
Seems that if the judge could order the return of the items, the same judge could order the reimbursement of their value.
Sounds like a scam to me. The county ought to be on the hook for full replacement value of the items, plus their lost use of same. The 100K they are asking for sounds about right. If the government stole my computers and backup drives, I'd lose a heck of a lot of stuff that just isn't replacable. There also ought to be some way of making those responsible personally liable. That would put the brakes on this kind of thing.
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