Texas Police Stole Money

[ninapanama]

This happened in Beaumont, Orange County, Texas. My boyfriend and his friend drove down there to look at land to buy some. We are planning to buy land to get in that business.
A white truck was in the lane next to them for awhile when all of a sudden it backs up, gets behind them, and starts flashing his lights. The cop gets out and asks for lisence and registration. My boyfriend didn't have his liscense and gave them his passport. The cop states the reason he pulled him over was because he was swerving. He starts questioning my boyfriend and then the second cop pulls his friend out of the car and starts to question him on where they are heading. One of the cops looks around the car with a flashlight trying to look for drugs and found nothing.
The cop separates them and starts trying to pin them against each other but got frustrated when they couldn't. They asked my boyfriend if they could search in the car, and my boyfriend said no. They called the K-9 to look for nonexistent drugs. The dog came and went around twice and only jumped when the cop whispered something in its ear.
The cop said that the dog was interested and they were going to search the car. They didn't find a thing and asked my boyfriend if he had currency. He said yes. They said how much. He said $25000 or so. The cops confiscated the money and didn't count it because "He didn't trust his own judgement and will hand it over to a bank." He gave my boyfriend a signed form and that was it.
Could the cops have taken the money? What are the chances my boyfriend will see this money again? This is money he saved up for our future and now the cops took it. Could a lawyer in our state of Virginia take this case against these incompetent cops?

Thanks in advance!

Nina

 

[racer72]

My question, if this had nothing to do with drugs, why is your question posted in the Drugs forum?

 

[ninapanama]

It does because the police state the reason they searched the car is because it was suspected to have drugs. In addition, they said the K-9 dog sensed there were drugs in the premise.

 

[tammy8]

Viewpoint from a former drug agent's daugher here (and I asked my Mom what she would have did in this case). Out of state plates, vehicle serving? Instant stop. Okay so driver has no driver's license but a passport? A little fishy. Then top it off and driver has over $25K CASH????????? Very fishy! People don't carry that kind of cash to go "look" at land because land is not purchased with cash instantly.

Get an attorney in the county he was arrested in. If the money is legal money (I assume you have bank records where the money came from?) and there are no convictions you will get the money back. I just feel there is more to this story then being told.

 

[OlRoy]

If the dog went around twice and didn't detect anything then "alerted" when the officer went down and whispered something to it would that hold up in court if she got the video from the patrol car? I mean woudn't a reasonable person suspect the dog was reacting to what the officer said since it had already went around twice and only reacted after something was *whispered* to it? Furthermore no drugs were found so obviously the dog was either mistaken or influenced by whatever the officer said to it. I doubt dogs are mistaken very often and under the circumstances i would think its pretty obvious it was effected by whatever the officer whispered. I could ask my dog if she wanted a treat and she would react...

 

[ninapanama]

In Response to Tammy8's VERY fishy feelings

Wow so you asked your mommy and your daddy is a drug agent....you are special.

He is driving with a passport and that sounds fishy? How is that? A passport is a federal id compared to a state so if some illegal action was occurring, I doubt a sane drug dealer would use a passport instead of a liscence.

I have read a lot of newspapers articles in Texas and it seems he is not the only person to have over $10K in cash to buy land. Do not make assumptions on the nature of people because if you have not learned this already, then let me teach you something:

NOT ALL PEOPLE THINK AND ACT ALIKE!

Yes he does have bank statements and records showing the money is legal. We have talked to the D.A. and it seems the police officers were wrong because they should never have taken that money without a conviction.

Thank you for your feelings,

Nina