No surprises here

Another good point

Free legal advice

Good point

We don't have a crime problem, we have a cop problem.

For those of you who argue that ALL cops are not mentally challenged, read these two cases.....

  

Charges Dropped for 119 People After Cop Caught on Video Planting Meth on Innocent Grandma

Jackson County, FL — Dozens of innocent people who were rotting in jail have been freed and their charges erased after the corrupt cop who put them there was caught on his own body camera planting meth on an innocent mother. Jackson County Sheriff’s Deputy Zachary Wester has since been fired and a slew of lawsuits are now rolling in.

Wester’s fall from law enforcement grace and the 119 people who were exonerated are due largely in part to the diligence of a single person, assistant state attorney at the 14th Judicial Circuit, Christina Pumphrey.

Pumphrey’s job as assistant state attorney included reviewing evidence before moving forward with charges against individuals. When she began reviewing cases, she found something very peculiar.

“This is an exaggeration, but it felt like his (Wester’s) name was on half the cases,” Pumphrey told The Appeal.“It was seriously disproportionate.”

When Pumphrey began watching the body camera footage from Wester’s arrests, she found something even more disturbing. Many times, Wester was seen conducting illegal searches. Also, his written affidavits did not match what she watched in the videos. But that wasn’t the most telling aspect of all these videos.

While it is no question that folks will claim that drugs found on them or in their possession “aren’t their’s” and “they don’t know how that got there,” nearly all of Wester’s cases had this. The videos showed that people were utterly shocked when Wester claimed to have found drugs in their vehicles. While a single person may have been lying, when everyone reacts the exact same way, something is up.

Although she reviewed multiple videos, Pumphrey never saw the actual act of Wester planting drugs or otherwise hiding them. However, all that changed when Wester pulled over Teresa Odom in February of 2018.

In that video, Wester pulls Odom over, claiming her tail lights aren’t working. However, it would later be revealed that her tail lights were, in fact, working fine and Wester had targeted her to frame her.

In the video, Wester is extremely nice to the woman, complimenting her, joking around, and making small talk. But in the back of his mind, he knew the entire time that he was going to plant meth on her and have her thrown in a cage—an insidious move indeed.

After threatening to have a K-9 come search her car, Wester tells Odom that she can avoid the K-9 if she just lets him search her truck himself—a huge mistake.

An LAPD officer accidentally filmed himself putting cocaine in a suspect’s wallet

It’s reportedly the first LAPD body camera video that the media and public have seen.

By German Lopez

Police officers can’t seem to stop filming themselves potentially planting evidence.

The latest incident comes from Los Angeles, where an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) accidentally filmed himself placing cocaine in a suspect’s wallet, according to a new report by CBS Los Angeles.

The body camera video shows police picking up Ronald Shields, who was charged with felony hit-and-run, having a gun in the trunk of his car, and cocaine possession in April. The police report claimed cops had found the cocaine in Shields’s left pocket.

The footage tells a different story. LAPD officer Gaxiola, as CBS Los Angeles identified him, picks up Shields’s wallet from the street and shows it to another officer who then points to Shields. Gaxiola then puts the wallet back down, picks up a small bag of white powder from the street (which later tested positive for cocaine), picks up the wallet, and puts the bag in the wallet.

The audio turns on, signaling that the officer had manually activated his camera to record. Then, the officer shows himself supposedly finding the wallet and the drugs inside of it, and repeatedly telling other officers about it. “Just to let you know, sir, inside his wallet, he has a little bag of narco,” Gaxiola said.

So what happened? The simple explanation is that the officer apparently did not know that when he switches on his body camera, it automatically records and saves the past 30 seconds, although without audio.

Shields’s lawyer claims that the officers outright planted the drugs to frame his client.

It’s possible, though, that the cops tried to reenact the act of finding the cocaine for the cameras. But that is still very deceptive — and when so clearly caught on video, it makes it hard to trust the police officers with just about everything else they’re doing. It makes a potentially credible case lose all credibility.

The LAPD is investigating the incident. “The LAPD takes all allegations of misconduct seriously and, as in all cases, will conduct a thorough investigation,” it said in a statement.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Previously, Baltimore police officers were caught doing this — twice. That led the local prosecutor to drop dozens of cases involving the officers.

According to CBS Los Angeles, this is the first time that the media has seen LAPD body camera footage since the force launched its program two years ago. It’s one hell of a debut.

Unable to find a human being who wanted to be a Fairfax County Cop, the county got desperate

Know why this is fake? A real cop would have gunned down that dog at the first bark

Even the aliens don't like you

A string of shootings in the area that left six injured were gang-related....you made that up

“The dust-up followed a contentious meeting in the Gum Springs neighborhood on July 9, during which Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. said a string of shootings in the area that left six injured were gang-related. Roessler declined to name the gang involved, citing a police department policy of not giving gangs publicity. Police have said the men involved in one shooting are black.

At the meeting, Annan and other African Americans sharply questioned the idea that gangs were involved in the shootings, saying police across the country had mislabeled violence in minority communities as related to gangs. Annan also said racial profiling by police was a problem in the county and criticized police for connecting the violence to a local recording studio that caters to hip-hop artists. “We don’t need a surge of police,” Annan said. “We need a surge of resources.”

Cop's wife

FCPD is hiring

FCPD is hiring

Criminals

Cops Can Kill Non-Threatening People As Long As They Say They Were Scared

The Supreme Court has now reversed the 9th Circuit court’s decision, and in its opinion on the case, the court argued that there should not be a debate over whether Hughes’ Fourth Amendment rights were violated, because Kisela should automatically be afforded “qualified immunity” as a police officer.

“The Court need not, and does not, decide whether Kisela violated the Fourth Amendment when he used deadly force against Hughes. For even assuming a Fourth Amendment violation occurred—a proposition that is not at all evident—on these facts Kisela was at least entitled to qualified immunity. ‘Qualified immunity attaches when an official’s conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known … Because the focus is on whether the officer had fair notice that her conduct was unlawful, reasonableness is judged against the backdrop of the law at the time of the conduct.’”

As SCOTUS Blog noted, even if the Supreme Court judges believed that Kisela was guilty of violating Hughes’ Fourth Amendment rights, “Kisela still could not be sued because any rights that he might have violated were not clearly established—a key factor in whether government officials enjoy immunity from lawsuits.”

Even though Chadwick testified that she did not feel threatened by Hughes or the knife in her hand at the time of the shooting, the Supreme Court has chosen to side with the police officer who chose to open fire within seconds, before taking the time to accurately assess the situation.

By supporting Kisela’s actions, the Supreme Court has essentially given all police officers a blank check, which says that if they see a person standing in the distance on her property, and she appears to be holding a weapon in her hand, the officer has the right to open fire and shoot her multiple times—as long as the officer maintains that he feared for his safety, even if he cannot prove that the person he targeted was threatening him.

This is why those low lifes need to have body cameras on them and required to be turned on with ANY interaction.

Ex-Deputy Arrested On 52 Counts After Allegedly Planting Meth On Innocent People

Former Jackson County Sheriff's Deputy Zachary Wester faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Crawfordville, FL – A former Jackson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) deputy has been arrested on multiple counts for allegedly planting methamphetamine on random, innocent motorists while he was working as a law enforcement officer.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) began investigating 26-year-old Jackson County Sheriff’s Deputy Zachary Wester in August of 2018 at the request of his department, the DFLE said in a press release.

The JCSO requested the probe after a prosecutor noticed that the deputy’s reports were often inconsistent with what appeared on his bodycam – if he turned the recording device on at all, according to The Washington Post.

If his bodycam was activated, it was generally only turned on after he “found” methamphetamine inside of a suspect’s vehicle.

Wester, who comes from a prominent law enforcement family, began working as a deputy in May of 2016, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

Over the course of the next two years, the rookie deputy “routinely pulled over citizens for alleged minor traffic infractions, planted drugs inside their vehicles and arrested them on fabricated drug charges,” the FDLE said.

“Wester circumvented JCSO’s body camera policy and tailored his recordings to conceal his criminal activity,” investigators noted.

He generally told the unsuspecting vehicle occupants that he smelled marijuana, which then led to a search of the vehicle, The Washington Post reported.

But instead of “finding” marijuana, he would come out of the vehicles with meth.

“A patrol officer just does not get lucky time and time again under the same circumstances without engaging in a pattern and practice of violating persons’ constitutional rights and/or framing people,” one federal lawsuit filed against the now-former deputy declared, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

Some of the people Wester targeted were guilty of other offenses, such as outstanding warrants or traffic infractions, but many had done nothing wrong, The Washington Post reported.

One man was sentenced to a year in a residential rehabilitation center due to the deputy planting drugs in his car, and another man lost custody of his daughter.

“He’s ruined lives,” a family member of one of the people Wester arrested told the Tallahassee Democrat. “People are losing their lives, their freedom, their children, their marriages — all because of this one man. It’s not just innocent men. It’s innocent children. It goes a lot deeper than everyone realizes.”

At least 119 criminal cases that Wester either initiated or was heavily tied to have been dropped since the probe began, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

Sentences for at least eight inmates were vacated, resulting in at least five of the inmates being immediately released from prison, WFAA reported.

Over a dozen people have filed notices of their intent to file lawsuits against the JCSO for their various arrests, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

“There is no question that Wester’s crimes were deliberate and that his actions put innocent people in jail,” said FDLE Pensacola Assistant Special Agent in Charge Chris Williams said in the FDLE press release.

Wester was fired by the JCSO on Sep. 10, 2018, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

On July 10, he was arrested on 52 counts of false imprisonment, racketeering, fabricating evidence, official misconduct, possession of controlled substances, possession of drug paraphernalia, and perjury, according to The Washington Post.

Wester is being held without bond at the Wakulla County Jail, the FDLE said.

“I would like to thank the citizens of Jackson County for their patience during the investigation and my staff for continuing to serve our citizens during this difficult time,” Jackson County Sheriff Lou Roberts said in the press release. “I also appreciate FDLE and the State Attorney’s Office for their commitment to this investigation.”

State Attorney William “Bill” Eddins said that investigators have been unable to determine why Wester carried out the crimes he’s been accused of, The Washington Post reported.

“You’re never certain of what lies in the heart of man,” Eddins said.

The prosecutor noted that Wester faces up to 30 years in prison, and said he has no intention of offering him a plea bargain.

Don't EVER trust them...keep the cameras

"Hit this button here to turn it off and later on blame it on a car door making your gun go off" 

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors considering police body cameras

by: Marcus Dash

FAIRFAX, Va. (WDVM)– Fairfax County is a step closer to adding body cameras to the uniforms of all Fairfax County Police officers.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors met Tuesday night to discuss the findings of a year-long pilot program of Fairfax County Officers wearing body cameras. The study took place from March to September of 2018. The purpose was to see what effect the body cameras have on police activity and perceptions of police legitimacy in the community. Lee District Supervisor, Jeff McKay, says the report shows a great amount of confidence we have in our officers and the body-worn cameras need to be permanent.

“It is beneficial to people who are on either side of the equation. It’s beneficial to our officers and their safety, it’s beneficial for people who are being questioned or are approached by police officers. To me it’s an investment in a fair justice system,” said Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay.

The county will draft up a plan to show the full board of supervisors in September.

Fairfax Co. leaders voice support for police body camera program

Michelle Basch | @MBaschWTOP

Fairfax County, Virginia, police tested body-worn cameras in 2018, and several county leaders are expressing support for plans to bring them back permanently.

It’s estimated that a program to outfit some 1,200 officers with cameras would cost almost $30 million over the first five years.

The price tag includes hiring 34 additional people to help handle the video: 23 in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, six in information technology, and five in the police department.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova thinks the cameras are needed. “I think that we should move forward,” she said Tuesday at a meeting of the Public Safety Committee.

Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay agreed, adding, “I don’t think this board is going to reject this. I would hope this board would accept the body-worn camera program. I think it’s important.”

Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity said that he would love to see police get the body-worn cameras because they help determine facts, but he is concerned about the expense.

“It’s pretty cost prohibitive at this stage, in my opinion,” Herrity said.

Also concerned about the price is Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross. “On the one hand it sounds like a really good idea, but on the other hand the cost factor is so huge; and there are so many unknowns, so I’m not quite there yet,” she said.

The goal is to come up with a plan to put before the full board in September.

A study by American University researchers determined that a body-worn camera pilot program conducted by Fairfax County police from March 3 to Sept. 1, 2018 went well.

During the test, half of the officers at the Mason, Mount Vernon and Reston police stations were randomly assigned to wear body-worn cameras, while the other half went about their jobs without the cameras. A total of 191 cameras were deployed.

Among the study’s findings:

— There was no indication that the cameras changed the way officers did their jobs, but the use of the cameras led to a slight decrease in the average number of complaints by members of the community against officers who wore them compared to those who did not.

— 603 people who had interacted with a police officer (some wearing cameras, others not) during the testing phase took part in a phone interview afterward. Asked to agree or disagree with a series of statements, 83% agreed that they were satisfied with how they were treated by the officer they encountered. Older people were more likely to agree than younger, and the percentages of Caucasian and Asian people who agreed were substantially higher than the percentages of African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans.

— 92% of those surveyed agreed that body-worn cameras should be worn by all officers in the department. Whether the officer they encountered had a body-worn camera or not didn’t seem to have any meaningful impact on their answer.

Residents Support Police Body Cameras In Fairfax County: Study

A survey found residents strongly supported body cameras, but the results were mixed for participating officers.

By Emily Leayman, Patch Staff

MOUNT VERNON, VA—A study of a body camera pilot program for Fairfax County Police found strong support for officers wearing body cameras. The findings of the study conducted by an American University research team were presented to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. The board will vote on adopting a permanent body camera program on Sept. 24.

The pilot program ran from March 3, 2018 to Sept. 1, 2018. Officers at the Mount Vernon, Mason and Reston district stations as well as a sample of Motor Squad officers and Animal Protection officers wore 203 body cameras. The three district stations were chosen due to the diversity of the communities, various types of calls for service and incidents resulting in the use of force.

Officers were instructed to turn on body cameras during encounters with residents. Recording could not happen in courts or medical facilities, when a person gave a statement in an alleged rape or sexual assault, and when a person reported a crime and requested anonymity.

American University conducted a telephone survey of 603 residents who had an interaction with an officer during the pilot program. Of these, 92 percent want all Fairfax County officers to wear body cameras, and 83 percent either agreed or strongly agreed they were satisfied with how the officer treated them. These results varied when broken down by age group and race. On the other hand, researchers found no evidence that the presence or absence of a body camera during police encounters had a significant impact on residents' perceptions.

Police Chief Ed Roessler Jr. expressed support for the body camera program. "We already have robust accountability tools with in-car video, the Civilian Review Panel and the Police Auditor," he said in a statement. "We investigate every use of force by matter of policy. The use of body worn cameras will benefit both the community and our officers to ensure that our high level of public trust is maintained."

Two squads of officers were also surveyed before and after the pilot body camera program. Most agreed body cameras would aid in gathering evidence and help settle complaints against officers. Interestingly, one squad's perception about body cameras became more negative after the program, while the other's became slightly more positive. For instance, 56 percent of one squad disagreed that body cameras would improve community relations; that dropped to 52 percent disagreeing after the pilot program. The number of officers in the other squad disagreeing went up from 41 percent to 44 percent.

There were more mixed feelings about whether body cameras would make officers more professional and reduce proactive encounters with community members. Many of the surveyed officers believe body cameras are needed in police departments with community relations problems, corruption or other issues. But they don't believe the Fairfax County Police Department has these kinds of problems.

Several supervisors expressed support for the body camera program, although a few voiced concerns about the cost. WTOP reported that the estimated cost could be $30 million over five years.

You can see the full study results for the police body camera pilot program here.

 Like Tha

Both police and civilians support body-worn cameras, concludes study of FCPD pilot program

________________________________________

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — An American University research team that studied a 2018 body-worn camera pilot project Fairfax County Police had undergone concluded that the cameras are supported by both the community and officers themselves.

The program distributed 203 body-worn cameras to officers at the Mason, Mount Vernon, and Reston districts of the FCPD, and the effects were tracked from March 3, 2018 to Sept. 1. Cameras were also given to a small sampling of Motor Squad and Animal Protection officers.

The study intended to find out if body-worn cameras impacted police activity or impacted community members' perception of police.

The research team, which presented their findings at a July 9 Board of Supervisors subcommittee meeting, reportedly surveyed officers as well as community members to track the effect the cameras had.

FCPD summed up the findings with the following statements:

There was overwhelming support among community members for the widespread adoption of body worn cameras.

The majority of community members who interacted with police officers during the pilot program reported feeling positive not only about the personal experience but also about FCPD as a whole.

There was no evidence that the presence or absence of a body worn camera during a police interaction had an impact of the community member’s satisfaction with FCPD.

There was consensus among the officers involved in the pilot that body worn cameras will increase the gathering of evidence and help settle complaints against officers.

Most officers believed that their behavior and that of community members did not change because of body worn cameras.

Woman injured after being hit by police car in Reston

Woman injured after being hit by police car in Reston

“While speed and alcohol are not believed to be a factor for the officer, police said the pedestrian may have been intoxicated.”

Of course the cops said that. And they’ll get away with this crap too.

A 42-year-old woman sustained minor injuries after she was struck by a police car in Reston, Virginia, early Sunday morning.

The collision happened at around 2 a.m. near the intersection of Reston Parkway and Sunset Hills Road, Fairfax County police said.

The unidentified woman stepped into the roadway against a red crossing signal and was struck by the police cruiser, which was driving southbound on Reston Parkway, according to preliminary findings.

The woman was taken to a local area hospital to be treated for nonlife-threatening injuries, police said. The officer involved in the collision remained uninjured.

While speed and alcohol are not believed to be a factor for the officer, police said the pedestrian may have been intoxicated.

Anyone with information about the incident should call the Crash Reconstruction Unit at 703-280-0543.

There have been 10 pedestrian fatalities, 85 injuries and 79 pedestrian-related crashes in Fairfax County so far this year, data from the county’s Traffic Division shows.

A lovely couple

Tit for tat

Never gonna happen

• Police Reform: While Fairfax County now has two forms of independent oversight of police, consider that the police have chosen to remain silent on recommendations and reports by both the Independent Police Auditor and the Civilian Review Panel. Members of the current Board of Supervisors acknowledge that they assumed the Fairfax County Police Department would make a public response to such oversight, but apparently, it will need to be an explicit requirement. Transparency remains a concern.
• #Criminal Justice Reform: Don’t forget what voters told you on June 11 about the importance of a progressive approach to criminal justice reform. Figure out and heed what leads to racial injustice in the criminal justice system.

This is an example of the nationwide practice of hiring the immature to guard our laws

Arizona couple files $10M lawsuit after cops allegedly pull guns on family after 4-year-old steals doll

 By Nicole Darrah | Fox News

An Arizona couple filed a $10 million lawsuit against the city of Phoenix claiming policeofficers committed civil rights violations after video showed them allegedly pointing guns at the two after their 4-year-old daughter stole a doll from a dollar store last month.

Dravon Ames and Iesha Harper, of Phoenix, who filed the legal claim on Wednesday, said that on May 29, they went to a Family Dollar Store with their children, London, 1, and Island, 4. Island, they said, took a doll from the store without their knowledge.

The couple said they drove to their babysitter's apartment complex, when a police car pulled up behind them, pulled open the driver's side door of their car and began shouting profanities at them in front of the kids.

The parents said an officer injured London by pulling on one of her arms after the mother refused a command to put the child down because she said the girl couldn't walk and the pavement was hot, and also said Ames was injured by police who erroneously claimed he wasn't complying with their commands after Ames exited the vehicle that the family was traveling in.

An officer is accused of throwing Ames against a vehicle, kicking his leg so hard that Ames collapsed and punching him for no reason. The claim said one of the officers profanely told Ames in front of his children that he was going to shoot him in the face.

Video posted online seemingly shows officers yelling, "Get your f---ing hands up" and "you're gonna get f---ing shot!"

 "My hands are up! My hands are up!" 22yo Dravon Ames says as a Phoenix police officer yells to "get your fucking hands up." The same officer later says "You're gonna fucking get shot!"

Ames says the officers stopped him after his child walked out of a Dollar Store with a doll.

Phoenix Police Department Chief Jeri Williams said on Friday that she began an internal investigation as soon as she found out what was happening.

"I, like you, am disturbed by the language and the actions of our officer. I assure you that this incident is not representative of the majority of Phoenix police officers who serve this city," Williams said.

The police department claims the incident happened on May 27, and described a different version of events. While the parents' attorney said the child and father were injured in the encounter, police said no injuries were reported to them.

Police, in a Facebook post on Saturday, also said there were other stolen items in the vehicle during the encounter besides the doll.

The department said an officer was at the dollar store on an unrelated shoplifting call when store employees told him about another shoplifting complaint and directed him toward a vehicle that was leaving the parking lot as the officer approached. The officer had told Ames, who was driving the vehicle, to stop, but he didn't, police said.

Another woman who was inside the vehicle was dropped off at another location before the family reached the apartment complex. She had three outstanding misdemeanor warrants and was booked, police said.

Police said Harper, the mother of the two children, remained in the vehicle and later explained that she believed one of her daughters had stolen the doll because they didn't have any money.

Both parents were handcuffed and detained inside police vehicles, but they were eventually released, Tom Horne, an attorney representing the family, said.

No one was charged with shoplifting because the property was returned, and store employees didn't want the case prosecuted, police said. But Ames was given a traffic citation for driving on a suspended license.

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said in a statement that she's "sick over what I have seen in the video depicting Phoenix police interacting with a family and young children." She called the situation "completely inappropriate and clearly unprofessional."

The mayor added the city is "speeding up" the use of police body cameras. "Every single precinct will have body-worn cameras by August," she said.

Rapper Jay-Z's "Team Roc" has reached out to the family to provide legal support, and has called for the police officers involved to be fired.

The officers involved have since been assigned to desk duty as the department investigates.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

I hate George Soros, but I love what he’s going to do to the Fairfax County Police

I hate George Soros, but I love what he’s going to do to the Fairfax County Police

In my opinion, George Soros is a pig. But, on the other hand, he got rid of corrupt Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Raymond Morrogh, a weasel who never met a murderous Fairfax County cop he didn’t love and also, because of Soros unethical behavior the Fairfax County cops are about the live through four years of holy hell and I think that’s wonderful.

George Soros flooded the recent election for county prosecutor with about $500,000 to elect his candidate for the office, Steve Descano, who has no significant experience prosecuting or for that matter, as an attorney.

Almost needless to say, Soros money and involvement went virtually unmentioned by the local media. Some of the outlets simply weren’t aware that Soros was all over the local election because their incompetent, and others, like the Washington Post, found it in the best interest of the far left, to kill the story.

Descano WILL NOT be tough on crime. If he was, Soros wouldn’t have handed him a half a million dollars. Descano’s will do as Soros tells him to do. He will be hyper-sensitive to the politically correct principles and lenient to the point of laughter. He’ll do away with marijuana possession prosecutions, drop most cases dealing with minorities facing another conviction that could lead to longer jail terms, in fact, race is soon to be a deciding factor over the law in Fairfax County. Cash bonds will be a thing of the past so criminals will be back at work doing bad guy things while their arresting officer is still filling out paperwork. Forget the death penalty prosecutions.

Why is all this and more going to happen?

Because the far left and financiers like Soros can’t get the laws they want enacted through the democratic process, so they’ll Prosecutors race all over the county and change to law that way. Soros backed prosecutors Descano simply won’t enforce laws they don’t like (Or Soros doesn’t like)

It isn’t illegal but it isn’t right either.

Anyway, here’s the good news. Under Descano the Fairfax County Cops are going to have account for themselves. They will no longer be above the law. Cops who murder civilians WILL BE PROSECUTED now.  Thug cops and incompetent cop whom the public complains about will now, for the first time in the history of Fairfax County, may actually be prosecuted, jailed or fired.    

The answer is YES

Has asset forfeiture gone too far? 

By Doug McKelway

Customs seized Gerardo Serrano's truck because he had a handful of legally obtained bullets in his possession; Doug McKelway has the story for 'Special Report'

WASHINGTON –  Two years ago, Gerardo Serano – an American citizen, Kentucky farmer and a one-time GOP Kentucky statehouse candidate – was driving his brand new, $60,000 Ford F-250 pick-up truck to visit relatives in Mexico, snapping pictures along the way, when Customs and Border Patrol agents halted him at the border, demanded his cell phone, and asked him why he was taking pictures.

"I just wanted the opening of the bridge. I was gonna take the opening of the bridge, the entrance of the bridge. That’s all I wanted to do," Serano told Fox News.

As a self-proclaimed student of the Constitution, Serano said he knew his rights, and protested to Customs and Border Patrol agents vehemently when they asked him to unlock his phone.

"You need a warrant for that," he says he told them. They searched his truck and found five bullets in a magazine clip that Serano, a Kentucky concealed carry permit holder, forgot to remove before leaving his home.

"We got you," he says border agents told him. He was detained, but never arrested, nor charged, nor tried, nor convicted. However, agents did seize his prized new truck. Two years since its seizure, they have yet to give it back.

Serano is still making monthly payments of $673 on the truck as well as paying for its insurance and Kentucky license fees.

His attorneys at the Institute for Justice say Customs and Border Patrol has told them the truck was subject to the government's Civil Asset Forfeiture program because it was used to "transport munitions of war." 

The Civil Asset Forfeiture program has its roots in English law that American colonists rebelled against. Their rebellion was ultimately codified in the Fourth Amendment, which reads, in part: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..."

Despite that unambiguous language, civil asset forfeiture was revived in the 1930s Prohibition era against bootleggers and mobsters. It was revived again in the 1980s war on drugs and continues to this day.

"It’s absolutely astonishing that civil forfeiture is a policy that we have in this country,” said Clark Neily of the Cato Institute. “It is totally unjust, unfair, and I think it's unconstitutional."

Sen. Rand Paul, (R-KY) agrees. "There are instances of people, young people, getting some money and saying, ‘I'm moving to California from Boston.’ They're stopping in some small town in Nevada, and they have a thousand bucks their dad gave them to get started,” Paul said. “And the police just take it and say: ‘You prove to us that this isn't drug money.’"

Gerardo Serrano's truck was seized over five bullets, which he says were lawfully his.  (Institute for Justice)

Morgan Wright, a senior fellow at the Center for Digital Government, spent 20 years as a police officer and detective in Kansas. He cites the benefits of civil asset forfeiture.

"We seized everything from cars to houses to money to jewelry to you name it," he said. "One of the cash seizures I had, had plans for a methamphetamine laboratory. They had documented intelligence that they had people working in these operations, people selling cocaine - cartel activity out of Mexico."

Wright acknowledges asset forfeiture may have gone too far.

"One of the worst things you can do in law enforcement is to take a good tool and abuse it," Wright said. "So that restrictive regulations come down on it, and it's taken away from everybody."

Many contend the program's abuses outweigh its benefits. Congressional critics were outraged, when, this summer, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ended Obama-era restrictions that blocked forfeiture without a warrant or criminal charges.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, conservative House Republicans joined liberal Democrats this month in rolling back Sessions’ undoing of the Obama-era reforms. During floor debate, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said: "Asset forfeiture is a crime against the American people committed by their own government."

"The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution exists to protect the citizens of this country from being deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. In practice and in principle, adoptive forfeiture is a violation of that Fourth Amendment," she said

The Senate is also poised to act.

"We have a free-standing bill that says the government shouldn't take peoples’ property without a conviction, that the burden is on the government that you actually agreed to commit a crime," Sen. Paul told Fox News.

"We also will look at, as the funding bills come through in the House, if they do bring up the Appropriation Bill for the Department of Justice, I will attach that language to it," he added.

Many say what's needed is a Supreme Court test case. It may get one.

Serano, represented by the Institute for Justice, is suing Customs to get his truck back and to end the policy of civil forfeiture once and for all. Justice Clarence Thomas has publicly said the high court needs a good case that address the problems of civil asset forfeiture.