A Pennsylvania family has filed a lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) after the agency seized $82,373 in cash at Pittsburgh airport because it considers large amounts of cash to be “suspicious.”
The money, which was stored in a Tupperware container, was Terrence Rolin’s life savings. The 79-year-old retired railroad engineer was worried about keeping so much cash on hand, so he asked his daughter, Rebecca Brown, to open a joint bank account and deposit the money.
There have been many cases of controversial searches and seizures in Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, which is one of the longest railways in the United States, located between Chicago and Los Angeles. The cases started with that of Richard Mckenzie back in 2008 when Mckenzie boarded Southwest Chief from Flagstaff, Arizona.
The nature of these seizures has been called into question, as reports have shown that most of these searches are based on hunches rather than evidence. It is not clear whether anyone who has been searched or had property under suspicious circumstances has acquired legal representation for civil asset forfeiture.
On October 25, 2018, Andres Mauricio Escorica Martinez was driving a white 2018 Volvo in Coconut Creek in southern Florida. A police officer approached the vehicle when he saw the car was parked with its lights on.
Escorcia Martinez showed the officer his Colombian driver’s license and confirmed that he had nothing illegal in the car. The officer noticed a shopping back in the back of the car which appeared to contain money. Escorcia Martinez then consented to his vehicle being searched. The officer verified that the shopping bag contained several bundles of cash. He then found a backpack which also contained cash.
Continue reading
DEA agent Brendan Darcangelo of Palm Beach County, Florida has been arrested for his alleged involvement in a DUI car crash that damaged another vehicle and injured two people.
Darcangelo faces charges of driving under the influence with property damage and driving under the influence with injury to others. It is unclear if he has acquired the services of an attorney.
A year after a Michigan doctor was acquitted of criminally overprescribing medication, a judge has ordered that the $6.2 million in assets seized during the investigation be returned to him.
Dr. Joseph Edwin Oesterling of Saginaw in Central Michigan had been accused of running a “pill mill,” a term used by investigators to describe a doctor who inappropriately gives out medication, often for non-medical reasons.
Continue reading
Criminal Defense and Civil Forfeiture Blog