I certainly read the article. I assumed the worst, despite the explanation of the musician. By doing that, you don’t have to even defend against the unwarranted taking with a plausible reason for having the cash. Law enforcement had no REASON to take the cash, even if it was illicit. The judge’s ruling was correct.
Simply having cash, even if having it with evil intent, is not a crime (without a WHOLE LOT of extra circumstances which certainly were not present here.)
And, BTW, in our Oklahoma County, the head law enforcement officers made a principled decision to NOT seek civil forfeiture unless there was a direct connection between the property seized and the purported crime THAT RESULTED IN A CONVICTION. They were criticized by others for simply following Constitutional safeguards.