Judge allows two men to sue police who seized
$100k in poker winnings in civil forfeiture case
In April 2013 William Davis and John Newmerzhycky were driving back to California from a World Series of Poker event. They were pulled over in Iowa—the cops claimed they didn't use their signal when changing lanes. A subsequent search turned up just over $100,000 in cash and a little bit of marijuana, and the cops just had to take that money. They let the men leave sans money with a citation for possession of marijuana paraphernalia (carrying a $65 fine). Well, now those two men are suing, and a judge says they can.
U.S. District Judge James Gritzner chose not to dismiss the lawsuit brought against troopers Justin Simmons and Eric VanderWiel, as well as Desert Snow, an increasingly-scrutinized private company that trains officers on conducting roadside searches to find drugs, cash, guns and other contraband. The lawsuit and civil liberties advocates have criticized Desert Snow for teaching questionable practices, such as singling out vehicles with out-of-state plates for stops and searches.
The men have said that in suing the police and the private "training" company, they hope to get back some of the money it cost to get back their stolen money in the first place. In the video you can see that they actually do signal when changing lanes and you get to watch, firsthand, how absolutely sleazy and unethical these police officers can be when they smell money.
“Do you got any drugs?” Simmons asked on the video recording that was later obtained by his lawyer. “Any large amounts of U.S. currency?”
“Absolutely not,” Newmer*zhycky said.
“Nothing in there? Could I search your car?”
“I don’t see any reason to. I’m not going to consent to that.”
“Okay. I’m just asking you if I can,” Simmons said.
“No.”
Well, that's that, right? Well, no it isn't.
MORE- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Afo...ature=youtu.be
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