Feds seize $11K from student for pot smell

 

Just how far can federal agents go in taking property when they suspect criminal behavior?

 

One Cincinnati native found out last year at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and now he's fighting back in federal court.

 

Charles Clarke II, 24, who now lives in Orlando, Florida, claims CVG police and DEA agents improperly took $11,000 in cash after he was pulled aside while traveling through CVG to visit family on Feb. 17, 2014. He says the money was his life savings for college, and that he was not carrying any drugs at the time.

 

"It's very frustrating and I am still very upset and still angry about this and feel like I've been taken advantage of," Clarke said Wednesday in a phone interview with The Enquirer. "I still don't have anything and I'm in debt now because of this. It's so frustrating that it's hard to put into words what I feel."

 

The original complaint and request for seizure filed by federal officials in July 2014 claimed they had suspicion that Clarke was carrying drugs, since his luggage smelled like marijuana and so too did the money in question.

 

Clarke, who says he grew up in Pleasant Ridge and Silverton, acknowledges he uses the drug recreationaly but said he does not sell drugs. He also had a previous arrest for theft in high school.

 

Clarke is being defended by lawyers from the Washington-based Institute for Justice, a non-profit public interest litigation firm. That organization claims that CVG police only would take "a couple dozen" such seizures a year in the late 1990s. But in 2013 alone, the airport police seized property nearly 100 times, taking more than $2 million in cash and property, institute lawyers said.

 

CVG officials say that all seizures are done through the Drug Enforcement Administration, however, and that airport police don't directly take money. But when asked how much the airport received back in seized assets under a federal sharing program, those officials declined comment, saying those numbers were not immediately available.

 

"This is all done through the DEA and we are there to assist," airport spokeswoman Melissa Wideman said.

 

Nationally, law enforcement officials seized $6.8 billion in cash and property between 2008-2013 under a federal seizure program that allows local agencies to get a share of the assets. That's according to a review of a Department of Justice database conducted by the institute.

 

That has risen steadily over the last two decades, institute lawyers say, following changes to federal laws in the 1980s to allow local jurisdictions to keep up to 80 percent of the assets seized.

 

"The bottom line here is that carrying large amounts of cash isn't a crime and people who carry cash shouldn't be treated like criminals," Institute lawyer Renee Flaherty said Wednesday. "The idea of private ownership of property has become a legal fiction. We have enabled law enforcement with the ability to take property without convicting anyone of a crime or even charging them with a crime."

 

CVG officials were provided several questions about the case, but did not immediately respond Wednesday afternoon. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rich Issacson out of the agency's Detroit office had no comment on the case, citing the ongoing litigation. The case is headed to discovery and possible trial, although no date has been set.

 

The petition to keep the cash came in July 2014 after Clarke tried to get his money back that April.

 

DEA task force officer William T. Conrad, who was working on behalf of the DEA through the Covington Police Department, testified in writing in that police were notified by airline gate agents that Clarke's checked luggage smelled strongly of marijuana, according to court documents obtained by The Enquirer.

 

That led to Conrad and a CVG detective to find Clarke in the terminal and question him and ultimately find the cash in question, which Clarke was carrying in his pocket. Conrad wrote he seized the money "upon probable cause that it was proceeds of drug trafficking or was intended to be used in an illegal drug transaction."

 

Clarke was then arrested for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer after becoming upset, Conrad wrote. All those charges were later dropped, and Clarke has yet to be charged with a drug crime.

 

A federal magistrate agreed that there was probable cause, allowing the money to remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshal's office. Conrad wrote in his afadavit that the money itself had a strong odor of marijuana and was tested by a drug-sniffing dog.

 

Clarke, who played basketball for and graduated from Cincinnati State in 2012, said he "has never dealt drugs and I am not a drug dealer."

 

"I was smoking (marijuana) in the car and that's maybe why things smelled the way the did," Clarke said.

 

As for why he was carrying his money in cash instead of putting into a bank or change it into other forms of currency like a cashier's or travelers check, Clarke said that he didn't use banks in Florida and "wanted to have my money where I could keep my eyes on it."

 

"Besides, that's not really the point ... I shouldn't be picked out because I had cash," he said.

 

 

 

What can be seized?

 

There are no federal limits for carrying cash on an airplane for domestic flights. Security agents for the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees airport and airline security, will discuss large amounts of cash with the traveler if they find it in a carry-on, however. And if agents feel it is necessary, they can call in local or federal law enforcement to continue the conversation if there are any suspicions of wrongdoing, according to a TSA blog posted in 2009 by the agency's chief counsel at the time.

 

And the rules/laws on "civil forfeiture" of cash or property for suspected drug crimes are just as murky. Federal officials are allowed to take property, including cash, of those "suspected" of criminal activity, but they must petition a federal court to do so. That petition can come even if charges are never filed.

If it smelled like weed cause he was smoking in the car I guess he had it sitting in the passage seat next to him?

Plus it was his life savings from college? He graduated in 2012.

It does not pass the sniff test. Literally.

Just decriminalize the stuff. Geez Louise.

Give that man his money!!!

Feds seize $11K from student for pot smell

 

Just how far can federal agents go in taking property when they suspect criminal behavior?

 

One Cincinnati native found out last year at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and now he's fighting back in federal court.

 

Charles Clarke II, 24, who now lives in Orlando, Florida, claims CVG police and DEA agents improperly took $11,000 in cash after he was pulled aside while traveling through CVG to visit family on Feb. 17, 2014. He says the money was his life savings for college, and that he was not carrying any drugs at the time.

 

"It's very frustrating and I am still very upset and still angry about this and feel like I've been taken advantage of," Clarke said Wednesday in a phone interview with The Enquirer. "I still don't have anything and I'm in debt now because of this. It's so frustrating that it's hard to put into words what I feel."

 

The original complaint and request for seizure filed by federal officials in July 2014 claimed they had suspicion that Clarke was carrying drugs, since his luggage smelled like marijuana and so too did the money in question.

 

Clarke, who says he grew up in Pleasant Ridge and Silverton, acknowledges he uses the drug recreationaly but said he does not sell drugs. He also had a previous arrest for theft in high school.

 

Clarke is being defended by lawyers from the Washington-based Institute for Justice, a non-profit public interest litigation firm. That organization claims that CVG police only would take "a couple dozen" such seizures a year in the late 1990s. But in 2013 alone, the airport police seized property nearly 100 times, taking more than $2 million in cash and property, institute lawyers said.

 

CVG officials say that all seizures are done through the Drug Enforcement Administration, however, and that airport police don't directly take money. But when asked how much the airport received back in seized assets under a federal sharing program, those officials declined comment, saying those numbers were not immediately available.

 

"This is all done through the DEA and we are there to assist," airport spokeswoman Melissa Wideman said.

 

Nationally, law enforcement officials seized $6.8 billion in cash and property between 2008-2013 under a federal seizure program that allows local agencies to get a share of the assets. That's according to a review of a Department of Justice database conducted by the institute.

 

That has risen steadily over the last two decades, institute lawyers say, following changes to federal laws in the 1980s to allow local jurisdictions to keep up to 80 percent of the assets seized.

 

"The bottom line here is that carrying large amounts of cash isn't a crime and people who carry cash shouldn't be treated like criminals," Institute lawyer Renee Flaherty said Wednesday. "The idea of private ownership of property has become a legal fiction. We have enabled law enforcement with the ability to take property without convicting anyone of a crime or even charging them with a crime."

 

CVG officials were provided several questions about the case, but did not immediately respond Wednesday afternoon. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rich Issacson out of the agency's Detroit office had no comment on the case, citing the ongoing litigation. The case is headed to discovery and possible trial, although no date has been set.

 

The petition to keep the cash came in July 2014 after Clarke tried to get his money back that April.

 

DEA task force officer William T. Conrad, who was working on behalf of the DEA through the Covington Police Department, testified in writing in that police were notified by airline gate agents that Clarke's checked luggage smelled strongly of marijuana, according to court documents obtained by The Enquirer.

 

That led to Conrad and a CVG detective to find Clarke in the terminal and question him and ultimately find the cash in question, which Clarke was carrying in his pocket. Conrad wrote he seized the money "upon probable cause that it was proceeds of drug trafficking or was intended to be used in an illegal drug transaction."

 

Clarke was then arrested for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer after becoming upset, Conrad wrote. All those charges were later dropped, and Clarke has yet to be charged with a drug crime.

 

A federal magistrate agreed that there was probable cause, allowing the money to remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshal's office. Conrad wrote in his afadavit that the money itself had a strong odor of marijuana and was tested by a drug-sniffing dog.

 

Clarke, who played basketball for and graduated from Cincinnati State in 2012, said he "has never dealt drugs and I am not a drug dealer."

 

"I was smoking (marijuana) in the car and that's maybe why things smelled the way the did," Clarke said.

 

As for why he was carrying his money in cash instead of putting into a bank or change it into other forms of currency like a cashier's or travelers check, Clarke said that he didn't use banks in Florida and "wanted to have my money where I could keep my eyes on it."

 

"Besides, that's not really the point ... I shouldn't be picked out because I had cash," he said.

 

 

 

What can be seized?

 

There are no federal limits for carrying cash on an airplane for domestic flights. Security agents for the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees airport and airline security, will discuss large amounts of cash with the traveler if they find it in a carry-on, however. And if agents feel it is necessary, they can call in local or federal law enforcement to continue the conversation if there are any suspicions of wrongdoing, according to a TSA blog posted in 2009 by the agency's chief counsel at the time.

 

And the rules/laws on "civil forfeiture" of cash or property for suspected drug crimes are just as murky. Federal officials are allowed to take property, including cash, of those "suspected" of criminal activity, but they must petition a federal court to do so. That petition can come even if charges are never filed.

 

I would have had a heck of a time buying a pop back in the day.

Big time miss use of the law.

Seems pretty fishy. How could they just take his cash? If there is no marijuana on his possession, then I don't think he has broken any rules.

So apparently it's against the law to smell like weed now?

So apparently it's against the law to smell like weed now?

 

I vote yes, just can't stand the smell. Same with cigarettes, can't stand that smell either.

 

But hell, if smelling bad is against the law, they couldn't build enough jails.

Seems pretty fishy. How could they just take his cash? If there is no marijuana on his possession, then I don't think he has broken any rules.

 

The seziure of property laws on the books go against the very fundamental of our justice system of innocence until proven guilty. To seize property off something so unreliable of a smell is a joke.

Can't blame him for resisting arrest, I'd probably do the same if I was in the same situation.

 

Just legalize weed and let's move on.......good lord!

The IRS structuring rules are absurd also. They can seize all your assets if you make multiple legal deposits under $10k. If you make a few $9900 deposits, the IRS can charge you for trying to avoid the paperwork. Many, many cases where they seized businesses because of this.

Can't blame him for resisting arrest, I'd probably do the same if I was in the same situation.

 

Just legalize weed and let's move on.......good lord!

First of all you would never have that much cash!

Second of all you would never have that much cash.

This is one of the scariest things about our country IMO. It is a HUGE deal. For the government to be able to actually take people's property WITHOUT even charging them is criminal IMO. I am sure the practice has helped catch drug dealers. I am just as sure that it has taken money, cars and other things from totally innocent people. I just read the other day about a bunch of people who own Hummers having them taken away "by mistake" and had to wait a year or so to get them back.

 

I actually heard one of the agency heads say that they were able to help pay for their police department building with the money they had confiscated from suspected drug dealers. Talk about a conflict of interest...if we can take enough money from people we "suspect" as drug dealers, we get better digs to work out of...

Has the Supreme Court ever looked into this? I cannot believe this practice is constitutional.

This one is even better. 50,000 in cash taken from a man in a trafic stop. He didn't even get a ticket. He just left a casino with his winnings. He had to sue to get back his money.

 

Police Illegally Seize $50,000 From Man?s Casino Winnings During Routine Traffic Stop | Off The Grid News