Texas cops shake down motorists

CaptainChewbacca · May 6, 2009

Ho-leeeee-shit

Texas police shake down drivers, lawsuit claims

TENAHA, Texas (CNN) -- Roderick Daniels was traveling through East Texas in October 2007 when, he says, he was the victim of a highway robbery.

The Tennessee man says he was ordered to pull his car over and surrender his jewelry and $8,500 in cash that he had with him to buy a new car.

But Daniels couldn't go to the police to report the incident.

The men who stopped him were the police.

Daniels was stopped on U.S. Highway 59 outside Tenaha, near the Louisiana state line. Police said he was driving 37 mph in a 35 mph zone. They hauled him off to jail and threatened him with money-laundering charges -- but offered to release him if he signed papers forfeiting his property.

"I actually thought this was a joke," Daniels told CNN.

But he signed.

"To be honest, I was five, six hundred miles from home," he said. "I was petrified." Watch CNN's Gary Tuchman try to question officials »

Now Daniels and other motorists who have been stopped by Tenaha police are part of a lawsuit seeking to end what plaintiff's lawyer David Guillory calls a systematic fleecing of drivers passing through the town of about 1,000.

"I believe it is a shakedown. I believe it's a piracy operation," Guillory said.

George Bowers, Tenaha's longtime mayor, says his police follow the law. And through her lawyers, Shelby County District Attorney Lynda Russell denied any impropriety.

Texas law allows police to confiscate drug money and other personal property they believe are used in the commission of a crime. If no charges are filed or the person is acquitted, the property has to be returned. But Guillory's lawsuit states that Tenaha and surrounding Shelby County don't bother to return much of what they confiscate.

Jennifer Boatright and Ron Henderson said they agreed to forfeit their property after Russell threatened to have their children taken away.

Like Daniels, the couple says they were carrying a large amount of cash --- about $6,000 -- to buy a car. When they were stopped in Tenaha in 2007, Boatright said, Russell came to the Tenaha police station to berate her and threaten to separate the family.

"I said, 'If it's the money you want, you can take it, if that's what it takes to keep my children with me and not separate them from us. Take the money,' " she said.

The document Henderson signed, which bears Russell's signature, states that in exchange for forfeiting the cash, "no criminal charges shall be filed ... and our children shall not be turned over" to the state's child protective services agency.

Maryland resident Amanee Busbee said she also was threatened with losing custody of her child after being stopped in Tenaha with her fiancé and his business partner. They were headed to Houston with $50,000 to complete the purchase of a restaurant, she said.

"The police officer would say things to me like, 'Your son is going to child protective services because you are not saying what we need to hear,' " Busbee said.

Guillory, who practices in nearby Nacogdoches, Texas, estimates authorities in Tenaha seized $3 million between 2006 and 2008, and in about 150 cases -- virtually all of which involved African-American or Latino motorists -- the seizures were improper.

"They are disproportionately going after racial minorities," he said. "My take on the matter is that the police in Tenaha, Texas, were picking on and preying on people that were least likely to fight back."

Daniels told CNN that one of the officers who stopped him tried on some of his jewelry in front of him.

"They asked me, 'What you are doing with this ring on?' I said I had bought that ring. I paid good money for that ring," Daniels said. "He took the ring off my finger and put it on his finger and told me how did it look. He put on my jewelry."

Texas law states that the proceeds of any seizures can be used only for "official purposes" of district attorney offices and "for law-enforcement purposes" by police departments. According to public records obtained by CNN using open-records laws, an account funded by property forfeitures in Russell's office included $524 for a popcorn machine, $195 for candy for a poultry festival, and $400 for catering.

In addition, Russell donated money to the local chamber of commerce and a youth baseball league. A local Baptist church received two checks totaling $6,000.

And one check for $10,000 went to Barry Washington, a Tenaha police officer whose name has come up in several complaints by stopped motorists. The money was paid for "investigative costs," the records state.

Washington would not comment for this report but has denied all allegations in his answer to Guillory's lawsuit.

"This is under litigation. This is a lawsuit," he told CNN.

Russell refused requests for interviews at her office and at a fundraiser for a volunteer fire department in a nearby town, where she also sang. But in a written statement, her lawyers said she "has denied and continues to deny all substantive allegations set forth."

Russell "has used and continues to use prosecutorial discretion ... and is in compliance with Texas law, the Texas constitution, and the United States Constitution," the statement said.

Bowers, who has been Tenaha's mayor for 54 years, is also named in the lawsuit. But he said his employees "will follow the law."

"We try to hire the very best, best-trained, and we keep them up to date on the training," he said.

The attention paid to Tenaha has led to an effort by Texas lawmakers to tighten the state's forfeiture laws. A bill sponsored by state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, would bar authorities from using the kind of waivers Daniels, Henderson and Busbee were told to sign.

"To have law enforcement and the district attorney essentially be crooks, in my judgment, should infuriate and does infuriate everyone," Whitmire said. His bill has passed the Senate, where he is the longest-serving member, and is currently before the House of Representatives.

Busbee, Boatright and Henderson were able to reclaim their property after hiring lawyers. But Daniels is still out his $8,500.

"To this day, I don't understand why they took my belongings off me," he said.
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I daresay its rather mind-boggling that this sort of thing still happens.

Ramen · May 6, 2009

The Clanton Gang had badges, too.

There's only one way to deal with these scum.

Scott Hamilton Robert E Ron Paul Lee · May 6, 2009

Yeah, and the if you drive into Shelby County, TN on I40, you'll be greeted by law enforcement sitting in the medians in White Escalades.

Uncle Albert · May 6, 2009

OK, so who wants to lawyer me up for free, and who's got driving directions to Teneha?

Scott Hamilton Robert E Ron Paul Lee · May 6, 2009

Faceman will represent you Pro Bono.

Starguard · May 6, 2009

A lot of Cops are known to do that to Drug Dealers and Gun Runners

Captain X · May 6, 2009

Corrupt law enforcement in Texas, home of the Texas Rangers, one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in existence? No way!

Starguard · May 6, 2009

Captain X said: ↑

Corrupt law enforcement in Texas, home of the Texas Rangers, one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in existence? No way!
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I know.. I used to live in Austin

Ash · May 6, 2009

This exact same thing was found to be happening in South Texas. When the story broke, the mayor actually defended the practice by saying that his was a small town and they needed the revenue. The people responsible should be strung up for this. Get some cops and a mayor or two swinging from a tree and this shit stops forever.

shootER · May 6, 2009

Captain X said: ↑

...the Texas Rangers, one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in existence...
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Link?

Sean the Puritan · May 6, 2009

shootER said: ↑

Captain X said: ↑

...the Texas Rangers, one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in existence...
Click to expand...

Link?
Click to expand...

Seriously! When I good Texas + Rangers + Corruption all I get are reports of the Texas Rangers investigating corruption in other agencies.

shootER · May 6, 2009

Chaos Descending said: ↑

shootER said: ↑

Captain X said: ↑

...the Texas Rangers, one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in existence...
Click to expand...

Link?
Click to expand...

Seriously! When I good Texas + Rangers + Corruption all I get are reports of the Texas Rangers investigating corruption in other agencies.
Click to expand...

I'm curious about what sparked X-man's post. I have the numbers of several Texas Rangers in my cell phone and, to a man (and woman, in one case) they're all good people.

Ramen · May 6, 2009

Chaos Descending said: ↑

shootER said: ↑

Captain X said: ↑

...the Texas Rangers, one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in existence...
Click to expand...

Link?
Click to expand...

Seriously! When I good Texas + Rangers + Corruption all I get are reports of the Texas Rangers investigating corruption in other agencies.
Click to expand...

The Texas Rangers got the F-15 Stealth Eagle production line shut down in favor the doomed F-22 Raptor.

Dayton Kitchens · May 6, 2009

I used to know a lot of Texas cops and the only thing I saw them shake were their bellies after leaving Krispy Kreme.

Captain X · May 6, 2009

Historically, the Texas Rangers were quite corrupt, at least in the early part of the 20th century.
Link

Unhappily, McNelly died at 33, and somehow the Rangers were never quite the same again. As the assignments became more routine—preventing prizefights, harassing fence cutters, jailing drunks in gusher towns—the quality of the men who performed them seemed to decline. By 1900 the force was notoriously corrupt, and during World War I the Rangers became little more than terrorists, a racist army supported by the state for the purpose of intimidating Mexicans on both sides of the border.
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Ash · May 6, 2009

Captain X said: ↑

Historically, the Texas Rangers were quite corrupt, at least in the early part of the 20th century.
Link

Unhappily, McNelly died at 33, and somehow the Rangers were never quite the same again. As the assignments became more routine—preventing prizefights, harassing fence cutters, jailing drunks in gusher towns—the quality of the men who performed them seemed to decline. By 1900 the force was notoriously corrupt, and during World War I the Rangers became little more than terrorists, a racist army supported by the state for the purpose of intimidating Mexicans on both sides of the border.
Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Well 90 years is a long time.

Captain X · May 7, 2009

I'm just saying it's not particularly shocking or anything. The only thing less shocking would be a headline about corruption in the LAPD.

shootER · May 7, 2009

Captain X said: ↑

I'm just saying it's not particularly shocking or anything. The only thing less shocking would be a headline about corruption in the LAPD.
Click to expand...

The difference is that you're trying to compare events of a hundred years ago or more to recent events. The Rangers may have questionable (if not downright reprehensible) things in their history, but at least they've cleaned up their act.

That you're too stupid to realize that times have changed (hint: lots of things happened back in those days that would never pass muster now or even fifty years ago) is no surprise at all.

Lt. Mewa · May 7, 2009

^^^^ What do ya'll expect from a Texan ass kisser.

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Texas cops shake down motorists

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Texas cops shake down motorists

CaptainChewbacca Lord of Rodly Might

Ramen Banned

Scott Hamilton Robert E Ron Paul Lee Straight Awesome

Uncle Albert Part beard. Part machine.

Scott Hamilton Robert E Ron Paul Lee Straight Awesome

Starguard Fresh Meat

Captain X Responsible cookie control

Starguard Fresh Meat

Ash how 'bout a kiss?

shootER Insubordinate...and churlish Administrator

Sean the Puritan Endut! Hoch Hech!

shootER Insubordinate...and churlish Administrator

Ramen Banned

Dayton Kitchens Banned

Captain X Responsible cookie control

Ash how 'bout a kiss?

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