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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/moses10192009.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/moses10192009.html<br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">October 19,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Bizarre License
on Highway 59 <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">The
Cash Cops of Tenaha
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By GREG MOSES
<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">I</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>t was Friday of the last day of August, 2007
when Arkansas resident James Morrow attempted to mind his own business
while driving peaceably through Tenaha, a small East Texas town in Shelby
County south of Shreveport and Longview. According to a federal
lawsuit (<i>Morrow v Tenaha</i>) filed by the American Civil Liberties
Union there was “no legal justification” for what happened next.
Morrow was stopped by Tenaha Deputy Marshall Barry Washington and asked
to step out of his car. Deputy Washington then searched Morrow's
car. <br><br>
Then Deputy Washington was joined at the scene by Shelby County Precinct
Four Constable Randy Whatley who searched the car with a dog.
Following two searches of his car, Morrow was asked by Deputy Washington
if he had any money, and he said yes, he was carrying about $3,900 in his
wallet. Deputy Washington promptly seized $3,969 from Morrow,
confiscated his two cell phones, and arrested him for “money laundering.”
<br><br>
“Washington had no reason to believe Plaintiff Morrow was guilty of
money laundering,” says the federal lawsuit. “Defendants Washington
and Russell told Plaintiff Morrow they would hold him
prisoner and prosecute him for money laundering unless he would
agree to forfeit the $3969. Under this duress and these
threats, Defendants Washington and Russell coerced Plaintiff Morrow
to execute documents memorializing the forfeiture, and released him, and
warned him to not hire a lawyer or try to get his money
back.” The “money laundering” charges were subsequently
dismissed.<br><br>
Morrow is a black African American and the lead plaintiff in a case
involving eight motorists who claim they were stopped and stripped of
their cash for no other provocation than driving or riding through Tenaha
while black. The cars they all drove were either rented or
displayed out-of-state license plates.<br><br>
On August 13, 2007, Deputy Washington lifted $50,291.00 from two black
African Americans from Washington D.C. and Maryland who were traveling
through Texas together. <br><br>
“Washington threatened Plaintiffs with charges of money laundering
and lengthy sentences if they would not execute documents allowing
the seizure or if they otherwise contested the seizure,” says the
lawsuit. <br><br>
“Washington did not charge Plaintiffs with any criminal offense,
nor did he have legal justification to do so.” On June 11, 2008, Deputy
Washington confiscated $13,000 from a black African American from
Wisconsin.<br><br>
“Washington threatened to bring money laundering charges against
Plaintiff, and to prosecute him on those charges, if he did not execute
documents permitting Defendant Washington’s seizure and forfeiture of the
money,” says the lawsuit. “Under this coercion, Plaintiff signed
the documents.” On April 18, 2007, Deputy Washington stopped and detained
another pair of black African American motorists, Linda Dorman and Marvin
Pearson, both from Ohio. While under detention they were questioned
by Shelby County District Attorney Investigator Danny Green. He
asked them if they had any money. According to court documents
Dorman and Pearson admitted to having $4,500, but after Green confiscated
the cash under the usual coercive threats, he handed them a receipt for
only $4,000. No charges against Dorman or Pearson were ever filed.
Jennifer Boatwright is a white woman from Texas, but on April 26, 2007
she was driving down Highway 59 near Tenaha with Ronald Henderson, a
black African American. They were stopped and detained by Deputy
Washington, then questioned by Washington and D.A. Investigator
Green.<br><br>
“Green threatened to bring money laundering charges against Plaintiffs
Boatwright and Henderson, and to take their children and put them
in foster care if Plaintiffs would not sign papers prepared by Defendant
Green to authorize the seizure,” says the lawsuit. “Under coercion,
Plaintiffs Boatwright and Henderson complied.” They handed over
$6,000 in cash. No charges were ever filed against them. <br><br>
“Now, under Texas law, if you are pulled over and accused of a real
crime, police are permitted to take money and other valuables that you
might have used in your crime, or received from your crime,” explains CNN
correspondent Gary Tuchman in a May, 2009 blog post at AC360. As Tuchman
explains, the forfeiture law is intended to take bad money and put it to
good use, but after an extensive public information request, the CNN team
discovered that District Attorney Lynda K. Russell has collected an
estimated $3 million in forfeiture funds to purchase such things as $195
for Tootsie Pops, Dum Dums, and Dubble Bubble that she contributed to a
poultry festival, $524 for a popcorn machine and popcorn, $400 for
barbecue catering, and at least two checks totaling $6,000 to a local
Baptist church. <br><br>
“But this one, this check, really stands out,” reports Tuchman in an
archived transcript of the story. “This is the check the DA wrote
for $10,000 and paid directly to police officer Barry Washington for what
are described as investigative costs.” <br><br>
With camera rolling, Tuchman asks Russell and Washington for comments,
but they both refuse on account of pending litigation. In federal
court documents the defendants deny the charges, claim to have no
knowledge of alleged facts, claim immunity as officials, and ask that the
case be dismissed.<br><br>
Republican D.A. Russell was elected by 53 percent of the vote against a
Democrat opponent in 2000, according to official numbers posted by the
Texas Secretary of State. In 2004 she increased her general
election share to 59 percent against her predecessor, Democrat Karen S.
Price, who tried to stage a comeback after a failed effort to get elected
in 2000 as a Republican District Judge. In 2008, D.A. Russell ran
unopposed. No one that year could have made a campaign issue of the
federal suit that was filed after the Spring primary but before the Fall
general election. During the summer of 2009, lawyers battled over
discovery motions. Plaintiffs are trying to certify a class action
lawsuit and therefore want volumes of video and documentation well beyond
the eight named cases. On August 20, Federal District Judge T. John
Ward largely granted ACLU requests for more materials and clarified the
legal path to possible class action certification. <br><br>
On the defense side, attorneys argued that they should be allowed to
discover “travel itineraries, calendars, journals, or other documents
reflecting schedule and/or any travel; all credit card bills/receipts;
all receipts for hotel, gas, meals, rental cars; and photographs
from any trips and of any items seized.” Judge Ward
agreed, but only if the records were “readily available.”<br><br>
Lawyers for the police and D.A.'s office also wanted plaintiffs to turn
over bank records, income tax returns, and employment records; in an
apparent attempt to revisit the “money laundering” charges that were
never filed in the first place. It was a scary request supported by
scary argumentation: “In other words,” argued lawyers for the Shelby
County law enforcement establishment in their federal filings, “even if
the initial traffic stop lacked probable cause, the forfeiture action
could proceed and the State could still meet its civil case burden of
proof by a preponderance of the evidence and the property could still be
forfeited.” <br><br>
The authority the cops were seeking was chilling. They could stop
people for no reason, take their cash, spend it, meanwhile filing no
charges of wrongdoing. All the while, the authorities of East Texas
or wherever could count on a federal court order that would allow them to
go after the banking, tax, and employment records of their innocent
victims if they tried to get their money back. Judge Ward denied
those parts of discovery. <br><br>
The discovery motions also revealed that collection accounts were not
always well kept. One front-line collector argued that he kept bulk
numbers only and could not provide evidence of how much money was taken
on any single occasion. To get your money back from these actors,
they may demand that you prove it's not contraband and then prove how
much they took. But these East Texas law enforcers are not finished
grasping at bizarre license to ply their trade as the cash cops of
Highway 59. D.A. Russell now seeks to use the forfeiture funds to
pay for her defense. In early October the ACLU filed a brief with
the Texas Attorney General's Office to prevent the forfeiture funds from
being spent to defend alleged abuse of forfeiture powers.
<br><br>
“Even if it were determined that, under other circumstances, the District
Attorney should be permitted to use forfeited assets to pay for legal
representation, such an action in this case should be prohibited because
it would give the appearance of impropriety,” argues the ACLU brief. “The
Plaintiffs claim the funds were taken illegally. To permit the
District Attorney to use them would suggest that law-breakers may profit
from ill-gotten gains, the very problem that the asset forfeiture law was
created to prevent.” Cash is a lucrative temptation. Empowering
officials to take cash money from passing motorists and give it to
attorneys who can help them keep it is a plain recipe for placing law
enforcement powers in the hands of highway forfeiture gangs. <br><br>
<b>Greg Moses </b>is editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review and author
of
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572304073/counterpunchmaga">
Revolution of Conscience: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Philosophy of
Nonviolence</a>. He is a contributor to
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904859844/counterpunchmaga">
Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland</a>,
published by AK Press. He can be reached at:
<a href="mailto:gmosesx@gmail.com">gmosesx@gmail.com</a><br><br>
<br><br>
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