Ah do belieeeve this belongs to us...
Posted on 01/11/2006 10:24:56 AM PST by E Rocc
Finders Keepers: Couple Get Cash They Found In Ditch
Sheriff's Office Wanted To Keep Cash Under Drug Forfeiture Laws
OKANOGAN, Wash. -- It's a case of finder-keepers and then some.
An Oroville, Wash., couple can keep the more than half million dollars in cash they found along a highway.
Jane Gerth spotted a backpack in a ditch not far from her home. When they found $507,000 inside, her husband Dan called deputies.
The sheriff's office seized the cash and wanted to keep it under drug forfeiture laws.
But a judge has ruled the couple gets the money.
Local authorities said they planned to appeal.
There really can't be much doubt that "forfeiture" is a money grab with little to do with real law enforcement.
-Eric
ping for later
First thing I would buy with the $500K? A ticket out of town.
I think the American public would be shocked to learn about how little the forfeiture laws have to do with actual crime.
All money belongs to the government. They just let us carry some of it around until they want it back.
I would expect nothing less here in the Glorious People's Republic of Washington. I'm just surprised the court didn't agree with the cops.
Having lived in this money-grabbing state all my life, I'd have known enough to quietly take that backpack home and keep my mouth shut.
Thats $507k worth of good publicity the Sheriff forfeited. Nothing like a poke in the eye for doing the right thing.
"The sheriff is just trying to save their lives."
Well of course he is. Whatever was I thinking?
I searched a little further for this. The Gerths found the money and reported it to the sheriff. The sheriff took out the money, stuffed the backpack with other items and left it to see who was supposed to pick it up. They caught David Taber picking it up and charged him with money laundering. He was found not guilty in June after he waived a jury trial, cross-examining witnesses and testifing himself (boy was that a strong case by the prosecutors). However apparently it was found that Taber had no legal claim to the money.
OK, so the crooks with badges and guns didn't get to rip off these innocent finders...but there is a different crook out there somewhere close by who may not have a badge, but who surely has a gun, and now knows where his drug money went...
Bizarre. I've had this exact fantasy.
Wow! I'm bumping a judge ruling! Who would have thought!
A GOOD property rights ping!
thats what I am thinking! I would move and move quick if that was me now that my name was in the headlines
::laughing::!!!
Err, but it is true...so maybe I'm crying...
I'm with you. $500k in a backpack is too rich for my blood.
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