There’s at least one honest federal judge in the USA.
Yahoo News – by Geetika Rudra | ABC News Blogs
A federal judge has ruled that Nebraska cops must return over $1 million confiscated at a traffic stop from a woman who saved the money $1 at a time during her 15 year career as an exotic dancer.
The money belongs to Tara Mishra, 33, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., who began putting aside her earnings when she started dancing at age 18, according to an opinion U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon wrote last week. The money was meant to start her business and get out of the stripping business, the judge wrote.
State troopers confiscated the money in March 2012 when they pulled over Rajesh and Marina Dheri, of Montville, N.J., for speeding in Nebraska, according to court documents. The Dheris are friends ofMishra and had been given the cash so they could buy a nightclub in New Jersey. Mishra would own half of the business and the Dheris would own the other half.
Mishra had packaged the money in $10,000 bundles tied with hair bands and placed in plastic bags, and it was stashed in the trunk of the Dheri’s rented car, which the Dheris were driving to Chicago. When they were pulled over for speeding, a state trooper asked the Dheris if he could search their vehicle, which they allowed, Bataillon explained.
The state trooper found the money and after suspecting it was drug money took the Dheris into custody, according to the judge’s opinion. But police did not find any evidence of drug activity in the car and a K-9 analysis found only trace elements of illegal drugs on the cash, according to Bataillon.
Neither Mishra nor the Dheris could not be reached for comment.
“The government failed to show a substantial connection between drugs and the money,” Bataillon wrote in his opinion. “The dog sniff is inconsequential…The court finds the Mishras’ story is credible…Ms. Mishra did have control over the money and directed the Dheris to deliver the money to New Jersey for the purchase of the business.”
Bataillon ordered that Mishra receive cash or a check in the value of $1,074,000 with interest.
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/judge-orders-1-million-returned-exotic-dancer-151044009.html
“The dog sniff is inconsequential…”
The dog sniff should always be inconsequential. Dogs are NOT humans and besides that, they never seem to pass their training these days to even be considered consequential in the field. They are about as inconsequential and incompetent as the officer himself.
I drove a taxi in Vegas for a while, and the best early-morning fares were taking the girls home from Crazy Horse (topless, lap dancing establishment), and she’d usually ask you to drive by the bank’s night depository first so she could dump her pile of cash. One girl I knew was barely 30 and she claimed to own three houses.
In the night time you bring the guys in, and the taxi driver gets their cover charge ($10 per head in ’98), so I made a lot of money by convincing guys they needed to go there instead of back to their hotel.
This woman needs be taught a lesson here. Make them pay interest on the money so she can see how much it would grow. Then she might invest it. But I will bet the money has already been spent. And they will not find it in the evidence room as well. That should call for charges against the police as well.
Sure…….Put it in a bank…..Then the Banksters will do exactly what the police did. Interest my ass. The only safe place now-a-days is in the mattress, or better yet, changing it into something yellow and shiny.
“Bataillon ordered that Mishra receive cash or a check in the value of $1,074,000 with interest.”
You were saying?
🙂
btw, why does the woman need to be taught a lesson?
She’s not the one who STOLE the money.
What, no pictures???
Good one LOL 🙂
In order for her to save over a million dollars in 15 years, she had to save almost $70k per year. One helluva saver or one helluva stripper – or both! Pictures, please!