License To Shill: Highway Robbery

[Vashta Nerada]

Always nice when Oklahoma makes international news for our fine acts of righteousness:

Muskogee County to refund $50,000 raised for Asian orphans, students that was seized in traffic stop

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/muskogee-county-to-refund-raised-for-asian-orphans-students-that/article_81e97275-db64-5fc5-8568-bf0d680bb2e3.html

Damn...how guilty does Muskogee County sound?

This guilty


Law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma are upset with attempts in their state legislature to reform the practice known as civil asset forfeiture, the legal tool that allows law enforcement officers to seize property suspected of being involved in, or derived from, illegal activity.

These groups have laid out a parade of horribles so extreme that Oklahomans have been led to believe that reforming forfeiture will lead to decapitated bodies swinging from bridges in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, as Mexican drug cartels spread throughout the state like an unchecked cancer.

Worse, the law enforcement groups say that without lax forfeiture laws, Oklahoma would be powerless to stop money from reaching, of all things, ISIS.

http://dailysignal.com/2016/02/02/oklahoma-law-enforcement-use-outrageous-claims-to-prevent-reform-legislation/

[dbacksfan 2.0]

This guilty


Law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma are upset with attempts in their state legislature to reform the practice known as civil asset forfeiture, the legal tool that allows law enforcement officers to seize property suspected of being involved in, or derived from, illegal activity.

These groups have laid out a parade of horribles so extreme that Oklahomans have been led to believe that reforming forfeiture will lead to decapitated bodies swinging from bridges in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, as Mexican drug cartels spread throughout the state like an unchecked cancer.

Worse, the law enforcement groups say that without lax forfeiture laws, Oklahoma would be powerless to stop money from reaching, of all things, ISIS.

http://dailysignal.com/2016/02/02/oklahoma-law-enforcement-use-outrageous-claims-to-prevent-reform-legislation/

Good to see the copsterbater is doing their usual good job of turning this into "COPSBEHAVINGBADLY.COM" Woohoo. How many other states will you bag on that have no relation?

Yeah, we get it, you have an agenda. Create your own website for it. God, you bitched at me, but Christ, you crucify every LEO and agency in the US. So are you following the money hungry unjust meter maids? I'm sure that they are totally out of line in your eyes.

[Vashta Nerada]

Good to see the copsterbater is doing their usual good job of turning this into "COPSBEHAVINGBADLY.COM" Woohoo. How many other states will you bag on that have no relation?

Yeah, we get it, you have an agenda. Create your own website for it. God, you bitched at me, but Christ, you crucify every LEO and agency in the US. So are you following the money hungry unjust meter maids? I'm sure that they are totally out of line in your eyes.

Thanks for balancing this discussion with the police perspective.  The "How dare you raise public attention to us getting caught stealing from a church when we risk our lives every day protecting you worthless people from ISIS" adds a lot....really, it does.

'DA Orvil Loge explained that after "meeting with the officers" it was decided that the legal team "would not be able to meet the burden of proof in the criminal case and in the civil case"'  but where is that due dilligence when the world media isnt looking over your shoulder?

They only got their money back after being shamed by the Washington Post.  ....and they do have a website:

Why Oklahoma cops are returning $53,000 to a Christian band, an orphanage and a church
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/26/why-oklahoma-cops-are-returning-53000-to-a-christian-band-an-orphanage-and-a-church/


So what happened in humble Oklahoma is now a national news item, http://oklahomawatch.org/2016/04/25/washington-post-state-deputies-seize-christian-bands-money/
Even the former Soviet Union is rubbing our nose in our corruption  https://www.rt.com/usa/340922-oklahoma-police-money-charity/


but why should we care enough to discuss it in TulsaNow?

"The real tragedy is not what happened in this case, but it's what happens in all the other cases when there isn't a national public interest law firm to represent people, and there isn't story in The Washington Post and other outlets that explain what's going on, and instead somebody can't fight this."



"Law enforcement was saying a month or two ago that there is no forfeiture abuse in Oklahoma, and I think this case illustrates that's dead wrong."
"This case is just the highlight of all of that -- no drugs, no priors, no reason to take their money, none whatsoever."

"In Oklahoma and the United States of America, the government should not be able to take your stuff unless they can prove it's tied to a crime," he said. "And that's just not happening."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oklahoma-civil-forfeiture-christian-band_us_571e54bee4b0d0042da9e0f8


http://reason.com/blog/2016/04/25/oklahoma-deputies-seize-thousands-raised
http://gawker.com/oklahoma-sheriffs-deputies-took-53-000-from-a-christia-1772887400




Its stealing. They interrigated him roadside. They interrogated him 6 hours at booking.  They watched the church videos, looked at the concert proceeds, and Facebook, talked to the band and the orphanage.  They knew what they were doing and who they were stealing from. There was no "were only human" mistakes but rather conspiracy from the D.A. on down.

Also, knowing that the sheriff in the next county got busted for the same thing didnt seem to phase them one bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_1t_8buFzw

[Vashta Nerada]

A former FBI agent pleaded guilty this week to stealing more than $136,000 in cash that was seized in the course of drug investigations and admitted to using the money to buy two cars and to pay for his wife's plastic surgery.
Scott M. Bowman of Moreno Valley, California stole the money over a two-month period in 2014 while he was assigned to an anti-gang task force, according to his plea agreement.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/3/scott-bowman-former-fbi-agent-pleads-guilty-steali/

[Vashta Nerada]

Neenah police raided Eagle Nation Cycles in 2012 in an attempt, shop owner Steven V. Erato has alleged, to put the shop out of business, seize the building and profit from its resale to a developer. Hoffer, a former undercover drug cop, participated in that raid. Significant evidence exists that while in the shop Hoffer planted drugs in the shop office then erased about 30 seconds from the security video that showed him doing it. Police seemed to consider the bike shop a public nuisance as well as a policing for profit opportunity.

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, ruled that SWAT officers Craig Hoffer and Robert Ross were innocent of killing hostage Michael L. Funk during a standoff last December, because he believed their excuse for murdering the man in cold blood.

Hoffer and Ross were innocent because of what they imagined. The men imagined that there were no hostages and that the call to police was part of a conspiracy to lure them into a trap.
http://www.agingrebel.com/14197


We watched more than 90 videos related to officers shooting a hostage outside Eagle Nation Cycles on Dec. 5, and have come to one conclusion: We have no confidence the leadership of the Neenah Police Department can run a force that protects its citizens.

Most of all, we are outraged about the fact that a police officer gunned down a man and laughed about it.
http://www.postcrescent.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/05/06/neenah-police-department-violates-trust/84034648/

http://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/2016/05/06/attorney-general-releases-videos-neenah-shooting/84025308/

[patric]

Trying to seize the property might have been a goal (and certainly at the heart of a feud) but ambushing the owner (and laughing as he bled out) makes it hard to argue that it was a mistake. 

https://photographyisnotacrime.com/2016/04/video-proves-wisconsin-police-lied-about-shooting-and-killing-hostage-during-standoff/

[patric]

The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety has purchased several devices capable of seizing funds loaded on to prepaid debit cards to aid troopers in roadside seizures of suspected drug-trafficking proceeds.

The portable card scanners are designed to be carried in law enforcement vehicles, allow troopers to freeze and seize money loaded onto a prepaid debit card, and to return money to an account whose funds were seized or frozen.

The vehicle-mounted scanners are also capable of retrieving and storing limited account information from other cards as well, such as banking debit cards, credit cards and "payment account information from virtually any magnetic stripe card."

(The card-reader manufacturer) ERAD Group, will receive a 7.7 percent cut of all funds seized via the card readers.


http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/state/new-front-in-civil-forfeiture-authorities-get-devices-to-seize/article_4a16da04-374b-51fe-aeab-2ad804b6b83a.html

[Vashta Nerada]

Oklahoma Forfeiture Furor


A furor has erupted in the last two days over the use of open loop debit card readers by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

Oklahoma has a sordid history of using civil forfeiture laws to steal from citizens in order to enrich police departments and individuals connected to the law enforcement industry. In 2013, an anonymous district attorney in the state used $5,000 from a forfeiture fund to pay off his student loans. Another unnamed, Oklahoma prosecutor lived rent free in a seized house for five years and paid his utility bills with forfeited money. Two months ago, Wagoner County Sheriff Bob Colbert and Deputy Jeffrey Gragg were indicted for illegally seizing $10,000 in cash from a driver after a "routine traffic stop." On February 27, greedy and crooked Oklahoma cops seized $53,000 from the manager of  Christian rock band. The manager planned to donate the money to an orphanage in Myanmar. Cops accused him of being a drug dealer. The case became a national scandal.

Asset forfeiture is the euphemism that describes the seizure of private property and money from people accused of drug crimes. The key word is "accused." In order to get their money or property back victims of asset forfeiture must hire a lawyer and sue. It has become a major source of funding for police departments all over the country. The cops get to keep what they steal. Seventy percent of forfeiture expenditures in Oklahoma are used to pay cops.

The Good News

The Oklahoma card readers will be used by traffic cops who patrol Interstate Highway 40. Numerous commentators have expressed outrage that police in Oklahoma could simply contrive a traffic stops, accuse their victim of drug trafficking, pull the debit cards from their victim's wallet and use the new card readers to steal all the money in a victim's bank account. Wednesday in the Washington Post, Radley Balko reported "the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a device that also allows them to seize money in your bank account or on prepaid cards."

"Here's how it works. If a trooper suspects you may have money tied to some type of crime, the highway patrol can scan any cards you have and seize the money."

Then Balko quoted a cretinous Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokesman who explained, "We're gonna look for different factors in the way that you're acting. We're gonna look for if there's a difference in your story. If there's someway that we can prove that you're falsifying information to us about your business."

The good news is that things aren't quite that bad yet. Balko got it wrong.

Some Details

First, police cannot touch your cards until after they arrest you. Then, as part of what is often called a post-arrest "inventory search," while they make a list of the belongings on your person, they can scan your debit card.

Secondly, the card readers do not allow police to steal your bank accounts. The seizures can only be made on prepaid debit cards – cards that are "loaded" in advance with some amount of money at an outlet like Green Dot or Walmart. Those are an alternative to carrying cash. The readers cannot interact with cards connected to a legitimate bank account.

Prepaid debit cards come in two flavors – called open loop and closed loop. Closed loop cards are your prepaid Starbucks or Target card. They can only be used instead of cash for purchases at one business. Open loop prepaid cards can be used anywhere, wherever – for example – Visa or MasterCard are accepted. For the last four years, the Department of Homeland Security has been encouraged to think of open loop cards as a tool of criminals and terrorists. For example, one common argument goes, buying an airplane ticket with cash raises immediate alarms but buying an airplane ticket with an open loop card does not.
T. Jack Williams

And, the principal alarmist behind this fear that open loop debit cards are a national threat is a man named T. Jack Williams. Williams is currently the president of a company called Paymentcard Services, Inc. According to his resume, Williams clients "include multiple federal and state law enforcement agencies including DHS, ICE, and USSS, all of which utilize Mr. Williams as a payment card subject matter expert. His expertise ranges from global infrastructure to forensics, targeting the criminal use of prepaid cards to launder money or finance terrorists." At a hearing in Carson City, Nevada in March 2015 Williams described himself as "the inventor of the prepaid card."

In 2012, Williams started another company called ERAD Group, Inc., which is named after the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate's Electronic Recovery and Access to Data (ERAD) initiative. The readers have been around since 2012. Williams landed a contract with Homeland Security that year. According to Homeland Security, the card readers are supposed to be used to detect "fraudulent cards."

"The ERAD Prepaid Card Reader is a small, handheld device that uses wireless connectivity to allow law enforcement officers in the field to check the balance of cards," the Department states. "This allows for identification of suspicious prepaid cards and the ability to put a temporary hold on the linked funds until a full investigation can be completed."

Oklahoma is buying its card readers from ERAD Group, Inc., and according to the contract the state signed with ERAD, Williams will get 7.7 percent of the money seized using the card readers. And it is all perfectly legal.

The Law

Earlier this year, in a "proprietary and confidential" brochure aimed at law enforcement agencies:

Williams argued that according to US v. Alabi and US v. Bah "interrogating the magnetic stripe of a confiscated credit, debit or prepaid card does not violate an individual's Fourth Amendment rights." He reads Riley v. California to mean "individuals do not have privacy rights with magnetic stripe cards." And he tells his potential police customers that the cases Oklahoma v. Eighty Three (83) Walmart Gift Cards and various MasterCards and Visa Cards and US v. Ross William Ulbricht, ak/a "Dread Pirate Roberts," a/k/a "DPR," a/k/a "Silk Road" instruct that "prepaid cash cards are...currency."

The bad news is that this is just the beginning.  http://www.agingrebel.com/14314

[Vashta Nerada]

Apparently some corporations have already banned employees from traveling to Oklahoma as a result.
"We simply cannot risk seizure of our employees' and our company's assets based upon the whims of an honorable, dedicated, and well-intentioned Oklahoma

Highway Patrol Officer,"
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/state/concerns-come-from-out-of-state-on-oklahoma-s-civil/article_1b61ff35-57f3-5103-be72-09773ad2ee69.html

[Vashta Nerada]

http://www.freedomworks.org/content/elderly-oklahoma-couple-experienced-government-overreach-first-hand-botched-raid


Mannford Couple Allege Malicious Prosecution in Botched Drug Raid
http://www.wirthlawoffice.com/tulsa-attorney-blog/2013/12/mannford-couple-allege-malicious-prosecution-botched-drug-raid.  A Wirth Law Office client has filed a federal civil rights suit alleging malicious prosecution when police raided her home based on a search warrant that targeted a nearby residence. The woman and her husband filed the federal case against Creek County after a court dismissed bogus charges stemming from the raid. Wirth Law Office Attorney Peter Knowles had asked the court to dismiss the case because of the faulty search warrant.

The Mannford couple's civil rights claim details a nightmarish chain of events that could happen to anyone. Nothing in the case suggests Donald Goss – a disabled veteran – or his wife Linda Goss ever did anything to provoke the police invasion of their residence. Their federal case says prosecutors filed charges against the couple to cover up sloppy police work.

Their misfortune was to live down the street from a residence that a confidential informant had allegedly identified as the home of a marijuana dealer. The errant drug raid unfolded when two digits in the street number of the real target house were transposed.
Investigators Added Insults to Injuries

When police pepper sprayed the family dog then barged into her home on March 31, 2012, Linda Goss was home alone. She spent the next three days in jail, deprived of medication, food, adequate clothing and legal counsel before she returned home.

By then, she and her husband had posted $100,000 bond. Mr. Goss had been battered by a fellow inmate and berated by investigators. Police tried to bargain a false confession for his wife's freedom, then demeaned his manhood when he refused.

The couple was released from jail around midnight with no cash and no vehicle. Their money and family truck had been impounded. They never saw the truck again.

Police warned them not to try to get it out of impound, yet a credit company foreclosed on a loan and auctioned the truck.

Camping gear and a generator the unlikely defendant had been carrying in his truck when he arrived home during he raid were taken and never returned. His fishing boat was seized only to be returned with holes in the hull. Some firearms seized from his home were returned damaged. Others were not returned at all.

Police never provided the couple an inventory of property seized during the unwarranted raid on the their Creek County home. Instead, the couple was charged with possession of methamphetamine, maintaining a place for sale of controlled substances and possession of a firearm during commission of a felony.

The only evidence prosecutors could muster to justify terrorizing the Mannford couple was a small amount of an innocuous substance found in a bag near the couple's couch. Police claimed a field test indicated it might be a methamphetamine, but the cops' drug dog found no evidence of drugs.

Police found none of the marijuana or scales they were seeking in a warrant that described a residence regularly used for drug sales. Nonetheless, the police raiding party refused to call off their search when Mrs. Goss insisted she did not know the person named in the warrant.
Evidence Lost, Hearings Delayed

A key piece of evidence — the original search warrant that showed police had raided the wrong house – mysteriously disappeared from court files. The case dragged on for months, with prosecutors repeatedly delaying a hearing where Knowles could contest prosecutors' lack of evidence.

Meanwhile, the couple provided prosecutors results of hair-follicle drug tests that showed they had not used illegal drugs, but prosecutors forged ahead with their case. Knowles only learned the substance taken from their home tested negative for drugs when a lab report was released four and a half months after the raid – on same day a preliminary hearing had been rescheduled for the third time.

Even then, prosecutors refused to admit their error. Wirth Law Office's Creek County criminal defense attorney filed a motion to suppress evidence seized in the illegal search. With no evidence to support their case, prosecutors also filed a motion to dismiss, but prosecutors wanted the case dismissed without prejudice, holding out the threat that they could refile the case later. Prosecutors claimed subsequent tests might prove the innocuous substance entered into evidence was an illegal drug.

When Wirth Law Office defense attorney Peter Knowles persisted in arguing for dismissal with prejudice so the case could not be re-opened, prosecutors threatened to charge the elderly couple with selling "turkey dope" — apparently the prosecution's term for counterfeit drugs. Problem with that threat was, nobody had claimed the couple ever sold drugs to anybody. Police had simply raided the wrong house.

No Excuse For Mistaken Raid

Although police claimed they had mistaken the house based on a transposed street number, they also claimed someone had already shown them the right house.

Their confidential informant had pointed to the alleged marijuana dealer's house down the street but they still got it wrong.

Ms. Goss repeatedly told police did not know the person named in the warrant. Instead of considering her statement, they jailed her and for three days while she was in jail deprived her of her right to an attorney.

The couple is seeking compensation in excess of $75,000 on each of 10 counts in their civil rights claim. Their charges against the county include:

    Unlawful search and seizure
    Unlawful and degrading detention
    Trespass
    Assault and battery
    False arrest and imprisonment
    Taking personal property without due process
    Damage to personal property
    Negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress
    Malicious prosecution

The couple's malicious prosecution claim rests on the fact that police and prosecutors refused to check the search warrant after it became evident person named in the warrant did not live at the house police raided. Instead, they attempted to contrive a case against the couple, then used seizure of their property and the threat of prosecuting the man's wife to get him to plea guilty to crimes he did not commit.

Botched Raids Put Everyone At Risk

The Mannford couple's nightmare could happen to anyone when police and prosecutors refuse to admit their own mistakes. The couple's civil rights case says police tried to cover up sloppy police work by coercing innocent citizens to take the rap for police mistakes.

The couple's nightmare is still not over. They are out tens of thousands of dollars. They lost a truck, a boat and other belongings. Most people's sense of trust in police would be forever shattered by such an unexpected and relentless assault on their home and their freedom.

The problem started in an instant, but it took weeks and months to unravel the malicious case the county filed to cover up its mistake. Getting compensation for their lost property might take even longer – if they are ever fairly compensated for the offensive behavior their county government imposed on them.

The Goss's aren't the only ones who've been victimized in recent years by errant police raids. Victims of botched raids are left to pay bond or sit in jail, pay attorney fees, lose personal property and suffer traumatic stress from being treated as criminals by no fault of their own. There have even been cases where citizens died as the result of botched police raids.

When police are more eager to make a case than to be sure they're doing their public job correctly, taxpayers can be left holding the bill for damages caused by careless police actions. The simple solution is for police agencies to hire qualified officers who take time to verify that they are targeting the right address before they launch raids that can be far more dangerous than any outlawed drug they might hope to find.

[AquaMan]

Four years ago. Any coverage in local media or response by local/state "leaders" who insist the safety of their constituents is their prime concern?

[MyDogHunts]

USA, USA, USA...  We are #1, Wooo! (Stephen Colbert:  "Wooo!")

I'm an old tool.  I no longer own a car. I keep a low profile.  Shi*t happens way too often.  Frankly, I'm scared.  I just want to hang out long enough to see either a metiorite, an earthquake, political insanity, or zombies.

I have personal knowledge of a case where property was siezed by police with no cause.  pancakes.  Corporations have more protection than citizens.  $$$ rules, rocks, & rolls.

Wooo!

[heironymouspasparagus]

Good to see the copsterbater is doing their usual good job of turning this into "COPSBEHAVINGBADLY.COM" Woohoo. How many other states will you bag on that have no relation?

Yeah, we get it, you have an agenda. Create your own website for it. God, you bitched at me, but Christ, you crucify every LEO and agency in the US. So are you following the money hungry unjust meter maids? I'm sure that they are totally out of line in your eyes.

Really?  Just showing the reality is turning it into "COPSBEHAVINGBADLY.COM" ?  Yeah, he is a single topic radical protester, but he doesn't make all the LEO's bad - the ones spotlighted are doing it themselves.  He just shows what they do, which IS the actual bad stuff here.  We need more rabble rousers in this country!!

[heironymouspasparagus]

USA, USA, USA...  We are #1, Wooo! (Stephen Colbert:  "Wooo!")

I'm an old tool.  I no longer own a car. I keep a low profile.  Shi*t happens way too often.  Frankly, I'm scared.  I just want to hang out long enough to see either a metiorite, an earthquake, political insanity, or zombies.

I have personal knowledge of a case where property was siezed by police with no cause.  pancakes.  Corporations have more protection than citizens.  $$$ rules, rocks, & rolls.

Wooo!

*Like*

[patric]

Really?  Just showing the reality is turning it into "COPSBEHAVINGBADLY.COM" ?  Yeah, he is a single topic radical protester, but he doesn't make all the LEO's bad - the ones spotlighted are doing it themselves.  He just shows what they do, which IS the actual bad stuff here.  We need more rabble rousers in this country!!

We do need more watchdogs, but chances are its going to be print media (rather than TV) because officials cant dangle sound byte access over their heads as punishment for asking tough questions (now its only fair to point out that it was an OKC TV station that broke the story   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d1orO7nUu8).

The Department of Public Safety said the devices are not used to access personal banking or credit card information but are used to read financial information on things such as gift cards and hotel key cards.

DPS sought to use the readers to gain access to bank accounts; however, the vendor declined that request because that would have violated federal banking and privacy laws.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/capitol_report/groups-ask-gov-mary-fallin-for-executive-order-to-stop/article_eb25854b-c8d6-5096-a646-2f27b88e289b.html

They were designed to copy anything with a magnetic stripe, save that data, or use it to clone another card... but we have their word they wont.

A few days ago Gov. Failin justified the card readers saying  "More than 25 states use the card-reading devices"  but the same number of states have legal medical marijuana so whats the holdup?