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| As Communications Project Manager for the Institute for Justice, Anthony “Rek” LeCounte works hard to make the public case for economic liberty, free speech, private property rights, and school choice for all Americans. |
This bizarre maneuver is the usual mechanism by which law enforcement seizes property from people on the suspicion that it was somehow involved in a crime and then tries to permanently keep the property without even charging, let alone convicting, anybody for a crime.
The circumstances of this particular lawsuit began when an Amtrak passenger mistakenly grabbed a bag containing $17,900 that purportedly belonged to two other passengers, Joyce Copeland and Angela Rodriguez. When the passenger discovered the mistake and turned the bag over to Amtrak police, a drug dog allegedly “alerted” officers to the presence of drugs that never materialized. Officers subsequently decided to keep the cash, over its owners’ objections, on the accusation that it was somehow involved in drug trafficking, even though nothing drug-related was ever found.
Read more: http://ij.org/pile-of-cash/