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96 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 11 Aug
Amazon lost ..
6 civil forfeiture actions; $ returned
4 guilty pleas dismissed or vacated
Civil racketeering, fraud case tossed before trial
DOJ investigation ended, no charges
Husband won victory in his 1st lawsuit against Amazon
Yet Amazon hasn't fired its lawyers. Wild.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1822318185556648348.html
This story is wild. I discovered it today. I must be living in a cave.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 11 Aug
They don't freeze your money, they take it
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56 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 11 Aug
Do authorities break the buildings with a buldodger in US as well?
We in India have a lot of incidents where under the law of civil forfeiture buildings get demolished by a buldodger.
https://m.stacker.news/45093
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/supreme-court-denies-blanket-stay-on-demolition-drives-101657738672057-amp.html
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74 sats \ 3 replies \ @freetx 11 Aug
A buddy of mine is a lawyer and he represented someone who had $40k taken from them during a traffic stop.
The crux of the police case was that the drug dog "alerted" to the presence of narcotics (there was no narcotics found, and the guy told my buddy that the money was from gambling winnings - sports betting - and that he didn't even use drugs of any kind ever).
Reviewing the body cams, there was nothing obvious the dog did....at one point the dog sort of paused for a second and cop immediately claimed "thats an alert!". My buddy, requested body cam from other stops to see if the alerts were similar but the cops said "every alert can be different".
Eventually the cops dropped the case, well they plea-bargained him down to a "non moving violation" and in exchange the cops got to keep $4k of the money, which the guy accepted because going to trail would've cost him twice that.
Quite a racket.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 11 Aug
Unconscionable
Drug dog paused is evidence or probable cause?
Was the police a small town or large city?
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 11 Aug
Drug dog was probable cause....the presence of money + drug dog alert was the basis for taking money. According to police, he couldn't provide an explanation for the money.
The guy did tell the cops it was winnings from sports bet, but didn't want to elaborate further as it was a non-legal sports betting group.
What really saved the guy was presence of body cams, when they started pressing on that (wanting to see evidence of drug dog alerts in other cases) the DA suddenly changed their tune and became willing to settle.
It made me view the use of K9 in such cases as very suspect, basically there is no standard of behavior and the dogs actions mean whatever the cops want its actions to mean....
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @DEADBEEF 11 Aug
That is utterly disgusting that this even allowed to happen.
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64 sats \ 2 replies \ @Satosora 11 Aug
"If the property in question could otherwise be removed, destroyed, or concealed before a hearing, however, police can seize it without these steps."
This is up to their discretion, right?
I can see a lot of corruption happening because of how they read this.
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41 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 OP 11 Aug
Oh yes
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43 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 11 Aug
"Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, criticized the perverse incentives for officers to hold on to seized property."
Even they see that it is wrong for the government to seize property like this.
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43 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 11 Aug
My favorite paragraph:
Civil forfeiture started during the colonial years under British maritime law. If a ship owner violated custom laws, enforcement could seize ships and cargo even if the owner was difficult to capture.
added:
Halima Culley bought a 2015 Nissan Altima for her son to use at college. He was pulled over by the police in 2019 and arrested when they found marijuana. They also seized Ms. Culley’s car. That same year, Lena Sutton lent her 2012 Chevrolet Sonic to a friend. He was stopped for speeding and arrested after the police found methamphetamine. Ms. Sutton’s car was also seized.
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