It took three+ years, but they got their siezed money back from Iowa (1 Viewer)

[DrStrange]

Two gamblers traveled through Iowa in 2013. Cops pulled them over for failure to use a turn signal, ended up citing them for their medical marijuana and seizing their $100,000+ poker roll. On the bright side, the gamblers were not shot on the side of the road.

After some legal effort, the gamblers got $90,000 back from the state, but the remainder of the loot was divided up between various law enforcement agencies. Not satisfied with being stung for $10,000 (and having tens of thousands more to invest in legal expenses), the gamblers persisted in trying to get their money back from Iowa's state police.

Now the courts have ruled against the state and ordered the return of the rest of the money plus $50,000 in payments to cover the gamblers' court costs and penalties to the state.

Good hand sir! Just goes to prove that citizens have rights and the fourth amendment to Constitution means something . . . . . . if the citizen can afford tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees and years of legal efforts.

DrStrange

http://www.press-citizen.com/story/...forfeiture-case-california-gamblers/95002732/

 

[derekdd23]

And cops wonder why people dont like them. Forcing someone who has legally obtained money to spend tens of thousands in legal fees to get it back is absurd. Now the tax payers have to foot legal bills for both sides. Fucking joke.

 

[jbutler]

Just goes to prove that citizens have rights and the fourth amendment to Constitution means something . . . . . . if the citizen can afford tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees and years of legal efforts.

...and if the citizen gets lucky enough to have a judge who sees it the same way.

Henry Rollins talked a lot in Get In The Van about how when he first began touring with Black Flag, he, coming from an upper class neighborhood, was shocked to see how some people are treated by the police. It eventually took its toll on him.

I understood that I had no rights and what went down was up to the Pig in charge.

I might not use language as antagonistic as that, but that's pretty much the truth so far as I can tell. Sometimes what we think are our rights are vindicated and sometimes they're not. On the edges of the law - and sometimes even in what we think are very simple cases - the result is often dependent on what judge you draw and what day you come before the court.

I doubt Dred Scott or Fred Korematsu were comforted during their lives by the fact that society now believes they had the rights of which they were deprived by the Supreme Court after they took all the appeals intended to guarantee justice.

 

[atomiktoaster]

I doubt Dred Scott or Fred Korematsu were comforted during their lives by the fact that society now believes they had the rights of which they were deprived by the Supreme Court after they took all the appeals intended to guarantee justice.

Interesting dive into Wikipedia. Scott was given to an abolitionist who supported the case and whose father had owned him earlier, freed, and died about a year later in 1857. Korematsu lived to 2005 and wrote amicus briefs in support of Guantanamo detainees, among other civil rights work.

 

[jbutler]

Interesting dive into Wikipedia. Scott was given to an abolitionist who supported the case and whose father had owned him earlier, freed, and died about a year later in 1857. Korematsu lived to 2005 and wrote amicus briefs in support of Guantanamo detainees, among other civil rights work.

Fred Korematsu's backstory leading up to his internment is just as interesting. Unbelievably great American and more or less totally forgotten except as a reference to the case.