Nebraska Cops Ordered to Pay $40k and Return $1 Million Seized from Innocent Woman

[Clyde]

Tara Mishra, 33, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, had her life turned upside down, her life savings taken, and her business plans quashed in March 2012 when police unlawfully seized just over $1 million from her during a traffic stop.


http://blog.heritage.org/2014/02/05...-woman/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

 

[Dani]

I can honestly understand why the police confiscated the money. Tara Mishra entrusted this money to her future business partners to travel cross country from NJ to CA so they could open up a night club. I am sure these friends didn't have a note from Mishra to say that they were traveling with her money for that reason. When a minor traffic stop turns into a consensual search of the vehicle, it makes you wonder why the officers wanted to search the vehicle in the first place. I have been pulled over 4 times in my life time and have never once had my truck searched. And I even had 1 officer who was suspicious of me because I acted nervous. He ran a criminal search on me which came back with nothing so he wrote me a ticket and let me go. When a dog sniffs drugs, if I was an officer I would have taken the money too. But why it was not given back to her after she produced tax records saying that it was actually earned, I don't know. Maybe she should have used the bank system like most people from now on. I was nervous when I had to carry $10,000 in cash from the bank directly to the house mortgage place when I bought my house years ago (which was like 3 miles down the road).

 

[DrHenley]

Presumption of Innocence (Coffin v. United States, 1895)

 

[Brent S]

I agree, any cop is going to confiscate large sums of cash, honestly I've got no problem with that. Now when you produce records and reasons why you legitimately had it, there should be no question of getting it back, immediately, and if you missed a closing deadline or messed up a business deal, then they damned well should have to pay for your losses. As far as the saying 'innocent until proven guilty', well it sounds good but isn't true in the world we live in.