According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a Nevada state trooper stopped Straughn Gorman's motor home on Interstate 80 in January 2013 for allegedly driving too slow.
Comment: It's worth noting that it took this man over 2 years to get his money back. Most people would not be able to afford to hire an attorney to fight for them for that long. The government counts on that, and that is why civil forfeiture is a scam by our government:
- Civil forfeiture: How the police get away with taking your stuff without charging you with a crime
- The Great American Highway Robbery Scheme: Cops in the US can legally steal your money under 'civil asset forfeiture law'
- IRS seizes hundreds of perfectly legal bank accounts, refuses to give money back
- Cash for cops: How civil forfeiture laws are used to enrich police departments
- Civil asset forfeiture: Only the rich can afford to keep their homes
After Gorman declined to let the trooper search his vehicle, the trooper let him go without a citation. But the trooper radioed ahead for a Elko County sheriff's deputy to perform a second stop with a drug-sniffing dog.
The dog alerted the deputy to something suspicious in the motor home, and $167,000 was found hidden throughout the vehicle. Gorman's money was turned over to federal authorities to initiate civil forfeiture proceedings, but he was never charged with a crime.
Authorities said that they were suspicious that Gorman was going to use the money to buy marijuana. Gorman, however, insisted that he was on his way to Sacramento to visit his girlfriend.
Comment: How does someone carrying large amounts of cash immediately turn them into a criminal? Do police even bother with considering the 4th Amendment any more, or are they more concerned with lining the pockets of their police unit?
Senior U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks accused the U.S. Attorneys Office in Reno of hiding information from the court about Gorman's initial stop for driving too slow.
"No matter how this can be viewed, the two stops were for minor traffic violations and they both were extended beyond the legitimate purposes for such traffic stops," Hicks wrote, noting that the second stop would not have happened if it were not for the first.
Hicks ruled that the government had violated Gorman's Fourth Amendment rights because the deputies did not have "independent reasonable suspicion" to conduct the second stop.
"This district has recently emphasized the importance of candor to the court at all stages of investigation," the judge said.
Gorman's lawyer, Vincent Savarese, said he was "dismayed that it required so much effort and litigation to bring the truthful facts to light that allowed Judge Hicks to make an informed decision."
The decision entitles Gorman to lawyer's fees, and opened the door to a motion for additional compensation. The U.S. Attorneys Office in Reno was considering appealing the decision.
was once a word used to denote an armed thug looting and murdering people in the dark of night too.