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jeffhoard jeffhoard
 
M$2.20 August 20, 2009 03:29 AM

Are police allowed to auction off your car, while your in jail waiting for lab results?

Sad tale here about Donald May, poor fella sat in jail for 3 months while he waited for the Police lab to figure out his breath mint wasn't Crack Cocaine to add insult to injury they auctioned off his car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p57W-8R61Xc
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Interesting: chriswingate M$0.10, bunnyphuphu M$0.10

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albanian albanian
 
 August 20, 2009 12:37 PM
Yes and no.

Sometimes cars are seized and auctioned off for have been used in committing a crime. It would violate due process and be illegal for the police to do this before a court has found the accused guilty.

However, the police and government are not responsible for looking after your affairs while you are in jail awaiting trial. It appears in this case the accused lost his apartment, lost his job, and his car was towed away and auctioned. This is all possible and legal. Normally people's affairs are looked after by their family, friends, or even lawyer. This man must not have had anyone to look after his personal things while he was in jail. It could happen to anyone who does not have family, friends, or money.

The legal remedy for a situation like this is a civil lawsuit. He may not have been able to afford a good defense lawyer; but, now lawyers will be fighting for the chance to take the case because he has such a good case for false arrest and damages.

As a side note, the policeman says that his kit detected drugs. The test for cocaine is just much too sensitive. See the recent question about cocaine traces on almost all currency. There could be traces of cocaine almost anywhere and a policeman should be really careful about supporting evidence before making an arrest.
Source(s):
http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/20435114/detail.html



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silverhamm... silverhamm...
 
August 20, 2009 06:38 PM
From personal experience I learned the hard way that Police can do whatever they want. Even if they are in the wrong, the law is on their side by default.

If you falsely accused a Police officer your life would be hell and the case would be resolved quickly.

In this case the officer was clearly wrong. Proving falsification of data will be next to impossible (even if it's obvious to any intelligent person reviewing the data).

He'll be lucky if he gets anything. But I hope he tries.

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fightingba... fightingba...
 
August 20, 2009 04:39 AM
This was totally illegal for them to do but this is exactly one of the things I have been trying to get people to understand police and the government are a brotherhood with law of their own. They can not auction our property off before you are found guilty. They took as a drug bust which they would then own your vechicle and the money from the aution of it is supposed to go to the drug agencies. In this case the jumped the gun he had not gone to trial and the officer had to be an absolute idiot to not know the diference between crack cocaine and a mint. Just remember there is alot of cover-ups and corruption out their. I know all to well. Wrong place wrong time, wrong mint wrong time. Anwer absolutely not no proper protocal was done.

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Voted as best: chriswingate
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albanian albanian
 
August 20, 2009 12:44 PM
You are just jumping to conclusions without looking into the matter.

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fightingba... fightingba...
 
August 20, 2009 01:15 PM
I don't think so I think the police jumped the gun. You did say they were the ones who autioned it right. They have certain protocals on matters they did not follow this one properly.

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albanian albanian
 
August 20, 2009 05:29 PM
The papers don't really go into the detail, but my impression from his lawyer's description of his client's problems was that the car was not auctioned off as a crime tool but was left by the roadside and eventually tagged, towed and auctioned for that reason.

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hellcareta... hellcareta...
 
August 20, 2009 09:23 AM
legally they can't but who stops them.if anyone try they put them in jail.
If policeman found guilty ,government should take whole of the property and freeze his account thats the best option

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krystyne20 krystyne20
 
August 20, 2009 03:20 PM
I would have to say that no, that is not legal to do at all. I worked at the Phoenix City Attorney's office for 5 years, and we worked pretty closely with police matters, and just from my own personal experience, I'm fairly certain that that is not legal. And I also don't understand why it would take 3 months to get lab results! That's a bit outrageous.

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samid samid
 
August 20, 2009 05:09 PM
Yes, the police have a right to any and all property they feel was used in the process of illegal activity, such as the possession of a controlled substance. In fact, when a drug dealer get's nabbed, the police automatically take control of all that person's assets, including house, cars, jewelry, and anything else of value and auction that stuff off. This practice has, in fact, been brought up around trying to figure out why marijuana is still illegal after being proven not to be even as harmful as alcohol to a person. Some say the government is making too much money off the big guys who get caught by way of seized assets and this is why marijuana is still illegal. If this is the case, the police are sadly mistaken because the revenue generated from the taxation would greatly outweigh revenue generated from seized assets, and they would still have the assets seized from those who deal in hard drugs.

The fact that the drugs in this case ended up being a breath mint is going to be a very big embarrassment for someone. I'm rather surprised they weren't able to distinguish this. Better not keep rock candy in your car, you might go to prison and have your car auctioned off. LOL

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