Eh Wah, a Dallas resident who was born in Myanmar, challenged the seizure of more than $50,000 in cash by the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Department after he was pulled over for a traffic stop Feb. 27.
Eh Wah, who lives in Dallas and is originally from Myanmar, was pulled over on U.S. 69 for having a broken brake light about 6:30 p.m. Feb. 27. Authorities seized $53,000 they found in his car and indicated that it would not be returned.
The Washington Post reported on the issue ahead of a press release issued by the man's attorneys Monday.
District Attorney Orvil Loge told the Tulsa World he has dismissed a drug-related felony charge and efforts to keep cash belonging to Wah, the tour manager for Burmese Christian rock band The Klo & Kweh Music Team. Money also will be returned to the band, its bassist, an Omaha, Nebraska-based church and an orphanage.
Loge said his office will mail a check for the full balance of what was seized to Wah's attorneys and that he made his decision Monday afternoon based on information that came to light in media reports.
"I looked at the case today and spoke with the officers, and we agreed that now that we've filed the case, our burden of proof had been elevated," Loge said of the felony matter. "We thought we would not be able to meet our burden of proof, so we had to act. And that's what I did this afternoon."
A probable cause affidavit in the felony case says a deputy's police dog alerted to Wah's vehicle, which prompted deputies to search the car, where they found $53,234 in cash. The affidavit does not say the deputy found any drugs or other contraband, but it says the money was seized "due to the inconsistent stories and Wah (being) unable to confirm the money was his."
Loge said Wah, 40, agreed to a search of the vehicle after telling the deputies he did not have contraband or associated proceeds inside. He added that what the deputies found "wasn't consistent with normal carrying of cash transactions."
The website of the Institute for Justice, a Virginia-based nonprofit libertarian-leaning law firm, says the cash came from ticket sales, offerings and donations made during the band's tour in such places as Illinois, New York and Texas. Institute for Justice senior attorney Matt Miller said Wah had a hard time communicating with deputies because he speaks imperfect English but nevertheless explained to the deputies that he was with a Christian rock band from Myanmar and had accompanied the band on its U.S. tour, which had reached 19 churches by that point. Miller told the Tulsa World that Wah put the deputies in touch with the band's leader, who confirmed that the money was raised lawfully.
"There were no drugs in the car. There was no drug paraphernalia. He had a perfectly legitimate reason to be in possession of all that cash," Miller added.
He said deputies questioned his client for about an hour on the side of the road before taking him in for a nearly five-hour interrogation. Miller said Wah received a warning for the tail light and was released.
On March 11 the District Attorney's Office filed a notice of seizure and forfeiture, which Wah and the other plaintiffs challenged formally Friday. Wah was charged April 5 with acquiring drug proceeds and appeared in court Monday morning before the case was dismissed.
In a phone interview with the Tulsa World on Monday morning, Wah said the situation was "the most unpleasant, terrifying experience you can imagine."
"I was shocked and scared the first time I learned I had a warrant on me," Wah said. "My parents — they were terrified. We never thought any time in our lives we'd see something like this. We didn't do anything that would be close to this kind of thing, the drug thing. ... You wake up in the morning, and it's the first thing in your mind."
Wah said in court documents that $2,000 of the seized cash is his but that he had all of the money in his possession for safekeeping during the band's tour. Muskogee County Sheriff Charles Pearson said Monday that Wah's explanation had "some inconsistencies" that led his deputies to think the cash was possibly related to drug proceeds.
Pearson said the Sheriff's Office isn't trying to deprive people of their civil rights and asserted that he needs to keep the community safe.
"You've got (U.S.) 69 running north and south all the way to Galveston (Texas); then you've got I-40 going east and west," he said. "Muskogee County is a major transfer point. We get a lot of drugs. It's just a major thoroughfare. ... I think we did our due diligence to investigate this case in particular."
Miller said the use of civil asset forfeiture in this case amounted to "policing for profit," citing Oklahoma's related laws that allow law enforcement agencies to use seized funds without proper oversight from a legislative body of elected officials. He said Monday afternoon that he was glad the county ultimately opted to dismiss the "meritless" case against Wah.
Oklahoma state Sen. Kyle Loveless introduced a bill last year to reform the state's civil asset forfeiture laws. It died in committee. The Institute for Justice's report on the issue assigned Oklahoma a D-minus grade in part because authorities need only to meet the preponderance of evidence standard in order to seize assets.
Loveless told the World on Monday that Wah's case is an example of how the current law is unfair and said he would continue to advocate for changes. He noted that the traffic stop occurred during the same week his bill was refused a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, commenting that "justice died" twice that week.
"If he hadn't had attorneys work for him pro bono to help him push this, he would have lost his money," Loveless said of Wah. "That just goes to show how bad the system is broken if they think that it works."
When asked about the use of civil asset forfeiture laws in this case, Loge maintained that the justice system served Wah properly.
"Civil forfeiture laws are designed to take criminal proceeds off the streets, and they're also designed to protect those that legitimately make money," he said. "We had probable cause to act as we did, and in the world of justice, things come to light. In this case, it did.
"Mr. Wah was without his money for almost two months. And that's a lot of money. Ultimately he's getting his money back, and the justice system worked."
Comment: This is a rare and fortunate outcome. Civil asset forfeiture has become quite a lucrative business for U.S. police departments, where the funds and property of innocent people are routinely stolen and often never returned.