Nevada Cops Use Civil Forfeiture To Steal a Veteran’s Life Savings

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On his drive from Texas to California, a Nevada Highway Patrol officer engineered a reason to pull him over, saying that he passed too closely to a tanker truck. The officer who pulled Stephen over complimented his driving but nevertheless prolonged the stop and asked a series of questions about Stephen’s life and travels. Stephen told the officer that his life savings was in the trunk. Another group of officers arrived, and Stephen gave them permission to search his car. They found a backpack with Stephen’s money, just where he said it would be, along with receipts showing all his bank withdrawals. After a debate amongst the officers, which was recorded on body camera footage, they decided to seize his life savings.

The officers did not arrest Stephen or charge him with any crime. They just took his life savings and left him on the side of the road without enough money to even afford gas to drive home.

After that, months passed, and the DEA missed the deadlines set by federal law for it to either return the money or file a case explaining what the government believes Stephen did wrong.

So Stephen teamed up with the Institute for Justice to get his money back. It was only after IJ brought a lawsuit against the DEA to return Stephen’s money, and his story garnered national press attention, that the federal government agreed to return his money. In fact, they did so just a day after he filed his lawsuit, showing that they had no basis to hold it.

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Institute for Justice

I remember reading about this when it happened. The embedded tweet above reminded me of it. A response posted an update to Lara’s case against the Nevada Highway Patrol:

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On Thursday, the Second Judicial District Court for the State of Nevada denied the state’s motion to dismiss a Marine veteran’s lawsuit challenging the state’s civil forfeiture laws, after his life savings were taken through the controversial process nearly three years ago. Thursday’s decision means Stephen Lara, represented by the Institute for Justice (IJ), can continue his legal challenge to the state’s forfeiture scheme, which allows police to take people’s property without showing that they committed a crime.

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Stephen’s claims include:

It violates due process for law enforcement to seize property for civil forfeiture when they stand to profit from those very forfeitures;

Cash is not a crime, and simply carrying your money in cash does not give law enforcement probable cause to seize it;

Civil forfeiture victims are entitled to prompt post-seizure hearings to force the government to prove it has a valid basis to hold the seized property;

and State law-enforcement officers can’t circumvent their own state’s forfeiture laws and the protections they give to property owners by using the federal equitable-sharing process instead.

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IfJ

Civil asset forfeiture is just another way that governments harass citizens.

I don’t know if he’s seeking monetary compensation, but if so, I hope he bankrupts the state.