Constitutional Law

Motorists Sue Texas Cops, Asserting Money, Property Illegally Seized

A group of travelers has lodged a federal lawsuit against police in Tenaha, Texas arguing that they were improperly detained and bilked of property and money. The Chicago Tribune reported that Tenaha police 'allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime.'

According to the newspaper the Tenaha police are using a state law that permits local police outfits to keep money and other property from drug crimes. David Guillory a Texas attorney filed the lawsuit on behalf of motorists who were detained, stripped of money and property and never charged with a crime. He told the Tribune that, 'The whole thing is disproportionately targeted toward minorities, particularly African-Americans. None of these people have been charged with a crime, none were engaged in anything that looked criminal. The sole factor is that they had something that looked valuable.'

Guillory found close to 200 cases from court records where Tenaha police seized cash and property from motorists, and only 50 produced drug charges. Tenaha Mayor George Bowers told the newspaper that, 'We're not doing this to raise money. That's all I'm going to say at this point.'

Full post as published by ACS Blog on March 11, 2009 (boomark / email).