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Thursday, May 07, 2015

Civil forfeiture: You can’t make this stuff up

More and more people are being presumed guilty and forced to prove their innocence; the "seize money and let the courts sort it out" mentality is a perfect example of this

“You’re just making this stuff up.”

So responded Iowa State Rep. Clel Baudler, chairman of the Public Safety Committee and member of the Government Oversight Committee.

In April, I had traveled to Des Moines to testify regarding civil asset forfeiture. Baudler’s reaction to a law-abiding citizen attempting to state facts and express concerns speaks volumes on the growing rift between citizens and law enforcement.

No, Representative Baudler, I was not making anything up, not even exaggerating. The facts speak for themselves. The only mistake I made was anticipating (hoping) that our elected representatives would be familiar with this important issue.

For example, on April 15, 2013, on westbound Interstate 80, Bart Davis and John Newmerzhycky were stopped by Iowa State Patrol for failure to signal. Dash-camera footage clearly shows the vehicle using its signal, meaning this traffic stop had no basis and was illegal. But what happens next is what is really egregious. Rightfully earned poker winnings in the amount of $100,200 were seized due to a nonexistent connection to an unspecified crime. The victims are now suing the state. This incident certainly left an imprint on my mind, but apparently to Baudler, it is just another day for Iowa law enforcement.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ALL State Police will deny what I am about to say because they DO NOT want the public to know. They have a mode on their radar that they can set to determine how much ca$h every driver has in their vehicle as they pass by. Supposedly it's for finding illegal drug money. Someone that I know was stopped out on rt.50 around Cambridge as I remember (it's been about 20 years ago) The same kind of trumped up stop (improper lane change or lights out, I forget). The person is a well known local person. He has about 37k ca$h in his truck to buy a horse and didn't make the deal and was on his way back home. He confronted the officer mentioning the money gun and stating that he has a close relative in the MSP and wanted to see how close the gun came to the amount he was caring? Then the officer came clean, told him the amount that he had and was only off by a few dollars. This technology was developed in the mid to late eighties along with the tag reader technology on todays tags. Remember the strips in the paper currency in the eighties that could be pulled out? Now it's woven throughout each bill. You will NOT find any info about this on line because all L.E. and the federal gov. does not want the public to ever know. It's not much of a stretch to think what will happen after criminals get their hands on this technology and come to our homes. Cops will deny this exists but don't believe them, they're legally forced to deny it all.

Anonymous said...

"Cops will deny this exists but don't believe them, they're legally forced to deny it all."
but when "The Cop" on route 50 was "confronted" by the man with 37K, he just openly confessed and admitted he was off by a few dollars. And no other trooper has ever come forward with this info? In 20 years? They have kept this a secret until you just unveiled it?