Imagine being pulled over for speeding. The police then decide to use a K-9 to see if your car has any drugs in it. Now imagine that the K-9 gives officers a silent signal that gives them reason to search your car. Instead of finding drugs, they find $48,000 in cash which they then seize without charging you with a crime. Sounds crazy right? Well that’s exactly what happened to Tiffani D.S. Barber and Kearnice C. Overton from St. Paul, Minnesota and now they want their money back.Overton was driving from Davenport to St.Paul with his four children on March 16 when Officer Michael Clark pulled him over on Interstate 80 for speeding. Officers Travis Neeld and Ian Alke responded with a K-9 unit during the stop. One of the officers claimed that the K-9 gave a silent indicator on Overton’s vehicle which then gave them probable cause to search.
During the search the police officers did not find any drugs, but they did find a large sum of cash. In the trunk officers found a gym bag containing $44,000 and another $4,000 was found in Overton’s jacket.
Police issued Overton a citation for driving without a valid driver’s license and seized the money. That’s right. He wasn’t even arrested and police still took the cash.
On April 11 Overton and Barber filed a petition in Johnson County District Court asking that the money be returned to them.
“This money was wrongfully seized. I was not arrested, nor were any charges lodged against me in connection with this money. This money was in no way connected to any criminal activity.” Overton claimed in the court document.
Overton claims the money was given to him by Barber to buy property from Overton’s cousin in Rock Island, Illinois. Overton said he was traveling home with the cash after the sale for the property fell through when police stopped him.
Iowa City Police Sgt. Vicki Lalla refused to discuss the petition but said many factors go into an officer’s decision to seize cash. Including how much money is present.
“It’s very unusual for people to be out and about with that much cash on their person or in their car.” Lalla stated.
Unusual but not unheard of. If Overton committed no crime, what right did the police have to seize the money? The argument that it seemed like an excessive amount of cash is weak at best. If those are the guidelines for police procedure what’s to stop police from taking whatever they want? Talk about overreach and abuse of authority and it only gets worse.
In Iowa the civil forfeiture laws make it almost impossible for innocent people to win in court. The police only have to prove by a preponderance of evidence that they have reason to believe the money is connected to criminal activity. In case you didn’t know, that’s the same evidentiary standard Judge Judy uses on her tv show.
The police have much to gain from this shady practice. They get to keep one hundred percent of the proceeds from the seized property. So if the court rules against the couple, Iowa City Police Department just became $48,000 richer.
We all understand that police are feeling the pinch from budget cuts but this is a really craptastic way to lessen their burden. A police bake sale would be a lot easier to stomach.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/04...l-from-couple/