Police Seize $63,530 From Veteran Because He Kept It In Grocery Bags

Police Seize $63,530 From Veteran Because He Kept It In Grocery Bags

Posted on April 24, 2015 by David Robinson
Written by: Daniel Jennings, Current Events
Picture of crook guarding illegally stolen money…..
Simply carrying a large amount of cash in a grocery sack in your car is now sufficient grounds for a police officer to seize your money, a US circuit court has ruled.
ISN’T THIS THE WAY CROOKS STEAL MONEY????? where in the he ha does it say you cannot carry or pay in cash…..further more….how much of the cash did this crooked cop put in his pocket….A panel of the Eighth US Circuit Court of Appeals found that all a deputy has to do to seize cash from a person is to Just say it is drug money.
The court refused to return the $63,530 that (THIEF) Deputy Dave Wintle seized (STOLE AND LIED ABOUT) from a disabled veteran named Mark A. Brewer during a traffic stop in 2011. Brewer was never charged with a crime or even given a traffic ticket. Yet the decorated Air Force veteran lost his savings when a drug-sniffing dog smelled marijuana on it (WHERE DID THE DOG SAY HEY STUPID THIS IS WEED) DUH!!!, even though no cannabis was found in Brewer’s car or his home.
Brewer saved the money from disability payments and his Air Force pay — as all documents deputies found in the car indicated. He said he was traveling to Los Angeles to visit his uncle and to use the money as a down payment for a house. He added he was hoping his uncle could help him get a job there.
“The record here does not make clear whether the seized currency constitutes property used to facilitate a drug offense or proceeds from a drug offense,” Judge Bobby E. Shepherd wrote in a March 23 opinion upholding the seizure. “For the purposes of analysis, however, we will assume that the currency facilitated a drug offense and is thus subject to [to be seized].”
It was taken through a legal mechanism called civil forfeiture.
Brewer’s ordeal began when he was driving through Douglas County, Nebraska, outside of Omaha on Interstate 680 in November 2011. Wintle, a Douglas County sheriff’s deputy, pulled him over for not signaling when he made a lane change, and then Wintle asked for permission to search the vehicle.
Keeping Cash in a Grocery Bag Can Lead to Seizure?
Wintle had just run a background check on Brewer and found he had “no major violations” on his record when he had the dog search the car. The search was apparently prompted by Wintle’s discovery of $1,000 in cash in Brewer’s pocket. He then found the other money in grocery sacks in a backpack.
Wintle claimed that copies of articles in the car about making hash and weed oil constituted evidence that Brewer was a drug dealer.
“The government provided sufficient circumstantial evidence to support the finding of a substantial connection between the currency and drug activity,” Shepherd wrote.
Among the circumstantial evidence was: — that the money was kept in plastic grocery bags in a backpack in Brewer’s trunk and that the money was bundled into batches of $1,000 that were kept together by rubber bands.
Brewer initially told Wintle that he did not have enough money to pay for a motel room and that he was sleeping at rest stops.
Wintle claimed he smelled marijuana on the backpack.
The federal government initiated seizure against Brewer, who appealed. During a civil trial U.S. Magistrate F.A. Gossett upheld Wintle’s action. Brewer appealed that ruling to the Eighth Circuit Court. Shepherd was part of a three-judge panel that upheld Gossett’s decision.


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