Communist US Government Steals Marine Veteran's Life Savings For No Reason At All
A Texas man is suing the Nevada Highway Patrol after they seized his life savings of nearly $87,000 during a February traffic stop.
Stephen Lara, 39, a resident of Lubbock, Texas is a 16-year Marine veteran, made the announcement at a press conference in Reno on Wednesday. He said he was driving from Texas to California to see his two daughters when NHP troopers pulled him over on his way into Reno for making an unsafe lane change too close to a tanker truck.
During the traffic stop, Lara said he was asked a series of questions, including whether he had large a amount of money in the vehicle.
Lara, who said he keeps his savings in cash since his days in the Marines, said yes and told officers that he had "a lot" of cash in his backpack in the vehicle.
"More officers arrived, they ultimately found the money and decided that they would take it, even though there was absolutely no evidence of drugs, guns or any other criminal involvement," Hottot said. "Stephen was not arrested, he wasn't charged, he didn't even get a ticket for following a tractor trailer too closely."
Officials searched Lara's vehicle and found no illegal drugs or weapons, but did find the $86,900 Lara told them he had in cash. Along with the money, police found two years of receipts Lara kept in case he had to prove his ownership of the money.
Lara said he did everything he was told to do by officers and answered every question he was asked. Still, the officers were ordered to seize Lara's money and turned it over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
By processing the seizure through the DEA, Hottot and Institute for Justice lawyer Ben Field said they suspect the NHP is looking to receive a bit of the money back through a process called equitable sharing.
"Equitable sharing is a federal program that allows federal agencies to take over the seizures that are done by state and local law enforcement, who then send back 80% of the proceeds to the state and local law enforcement agency," Hottot said. "They did that here because Nevada has comparatively robust protections on property owners in civil forfeiture cases."
Lara is alleging in state court that the equitable sharing process is unconstitutional and that by seizing his money for their own personal profit over legitimate public safety concerns, the NHP violated state law set by the Nevada Constitution.
https://archive.md/XKMpj
https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2021/09/02/marine-vet-sues-nevada-highway-patrol-over-seizure-life-savings/5686851001/
