Feds must pay legal fees in seizing of more than $1M in cash from exotic dancer

Omaha World Herald ^ | 01/29/14 | Associated Press

[gopno1]

The federal government has gotten a new bill in its failed attempt to seize more than $1 million from a California woman who said the money was her life savings earned over years as an exotic dancer...

Entire story at: http://www.omaha.com/article/20140129/NEWS/140128484/1707

[gopno1]

Granted, traveling with 1,000,000 in cash is NOT the brightest move ever, but the disturbing part is that your money is "guilty until proven innocent" and it can just be seized with no probable cause to seize it.

Scary stuff.

[Mark17]

I think that some day, one of these little incidents is going to end very badly for someone.

[ZULU]

IRS operates by Napoleonic Code - you are guilty until you prove you are innocent.

On the other hand, the federal government wanting to make a profit from a prostitute’s earnings shows they are what we always knew they were.

[Ken H]

...the disturbing part is that your money is "guilty until proven innocent" and it can just be seized with no probable cause to seize it.

Thank the Drug War and its accomplices for that.

[plainshame]

Meet the real criminals!The US government robbing people daily and they make the mafia look like choir boys.The SOB’s should be in jail!

[2ndDivisionVet]

She needs to head to Hong Kong.

[from occupied ga]

Should make the cops who stole it personally liable for the legal fees.

[fortheDeclaration]

True!

[Jack Hydrazine]

That’s how the asset forfeiture laws are.

[iowamark]

Did she pay income taxes on those earnings?

[virgil]

I wonder how she proved she earned it and if she paid taxes on it. There’s no such thing as innocent until proven guilty anymore. Even with local cops and courts.

[Axenolith]

Now days, I hope not...

[Mark17]

Should make the cops who stole it personally liable for the legal fees.

I remember in the 70s, the hippies were calling the cops pigs. Have things changed, or is it just that more people are figuring it out? Would it be like this, even if there was no war on drugs? I have a friend, whose son is a cop. He says he and his son rarely speak anymore, because of that cop mentality.

[hosepipe]

I wonder how she proved she earned it and if she paid taxes on it.

---

Hopefully Not.... Last thing the federal(and State) givernment NEEDS is more money...
You know................... to waste..

[Republican1795.]

Police are often acting without probable cause these days and often do not know the fourth amendment.

[Michael.SF.]

that is a lot of lap dances!!

[Defiant]

if she paid taxes on it

She should say it was all earned over 3 years ago, and the SOL on taxes has passed.

[BigCinBigD]

It was a snatch and grab opperation!

[dsc]

I don’t think nude dancing as at nudie bars is a good thing.

That said, I’m really, really glad that she got her money back. She earned it, and earned it the hard way. They had no rightful authority to seize her money.

This seizure crap has gone way, way too far.

[Balding_Eagle]

The government only has to pay her $40,000 legal fees!?

That’s a no-lose position for the government. Someone needs to lose their job over this, or it will simply continue.