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"Evidence" is a lame excuse for the cops to keep the money. One stack of bills is like any other stack of bills. Other reports indicate this cash is the proceeds of Scott selling his golf club membership. This is like confiscating someone's paycheck.

"Evidence" is a lame excuse? Only if it isn't evidence, which in this case it is.

Evidence that he was planning to flee, when considered in context of the vehicle he was in, how he acquired the vehicle, the ID he had, his hair, etc, etc.

If he's acquitted (cough) he'll get the money back. If it really is his.

Don't forget the camping gear, and the conversation he had with the sales person, saying he was going to be roughing it in Mexico for a few months.

From my memory of a news article last winter/spring.

Pinz

You missed the point. The prosecution doesn't have to display "that" stack of bills at the trial. Any old $15,000 stack of money will work. The decomposed bodies are "evidence". Does the prosecution intend to wheel the bodies into the courtroom? Of course not.

And just suppose that a suspect/ arrestee has a dependent family at home. Can you justify the cops keeping LEGAL money as evidence when the family needs the money for groceries & rent? This isn't stolen money.

And, you suggest that Scott can claim the money when he's "acquitted". Surely you don't mean to suggest that it's OK for the state to STEAL the $15,000 even if he's guilty??

The cash suggests that Peterson was going to flee, but sure as heck doesn't prove it. There are reasonable explanations, such as anticipating that bank accounts are going to be frozen & not wanting to "announce" who he is by using a credit card/ check. Hair color change & a different car doesn't prove he was planning to flee; a reasonable explanation is that he just didn't want to be recognized when he went out to buy milk or cigarettes. Why he was carrying his mother's ID (if true), I don't have a clue. It's not like he could pass himself off as his mother & using his mother's ID isn't exactly hiding.

BTW, I think he's guilty. But I have a problem w/ cops locking up LEGALLY acquired money.