A Marine veteran is fighting back and warning about a lack of accountability after the Nevada Highway Patrol seized $87,000 from him during a traffic stop in 2021 through a legal loophole.
Marine veteran Stephen Lara, the plaintiff in a recent lawsuit against the state, told Fox News that he was pulled over by a Nevada Highway Patrol officer in February of 2021 and was accused of following too closely behind a semi-truck and driving under the speed limit. While he was pulled over, Lara was asked to exit the vehicle as an officer asked him if he had any “large amounts of United States currency in the vehicle.”
After explaining that he was traveling with cash in the vehicle, the Marine veteran allowed police officers to search his car, where they discovered $87,000 located in a plastic bag with paystubs and bank receipts.
The officers then had a police dog sniff the money and informed Lara that the dog was “alerted” to the money, indicating that the money could be linked to drugs. As a result, the Nevada police officers seized the Marine veteran’s money and used civil asset forfeiture to deliver it to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
While Lara was never charged with a crime, Fox News reported that civil asset forfeiture allows the government to seize and retain a person’s property if the government claims it is linked to criminal activity.
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Fox News reported that while Nevada requires clear and convincing evidence for the government to seize property under civil asset forfeiture, an “equitable sharing” program allows local and state law enforcement officials to coordinate with federal agencies to work around typical restrictions. The program also allows federal agencies to return as much as 80% of the proceeds to state agencies.
According to Fox News, Lara was later able to recover his seized assets with the help of a nonprofit law firm and sued the state for damages.
“This is personal to me,” Lara said. “It does something to you when you have a country that pays you a retirement check for the service you put in, and it’s that same country that’s working in collusion with these local state police departments to try to take the very money that they pay you for retirement.”
According to Fox News, Nevada Second Judicial District Judge Connie J. Steinheimer recently ruled that the Nevada Highway Patrol is “not explicitly permitted” by the legislature to “utilize the federal process for forfeiture” and “undermine this bedrock policy and effectively circumvent Nevada’s civil asset forfeiture statutes by electing to participate in the federal equitable sharing program.”
Despite the recent legal victory, Lara told Fox News, “The fight is not over.”