After a lawsuit brought by two traveling poker players over the confiscation of their bankrolls, the State of Iowa has not only refunded the players their monies beyond what they were carrying but also disbanded the police unit in charge of such actions.
On Tuesday, the Iowa Department of Public Safety announced that it was disbanding its Drug Interdiction Team, which was charged with monitoring drug traffic in the Hawkeye State. As a part of their actions, however, the Drug Interdiction Team could, upon stopping someone, confiscate whatever was found in the vehicle as a “property forfeiture.” In some cases, this involved people losing property that they were carrying with them or, in many cases, large amounts of cash that the Drug Interdiction Team would seize, questioning the owners why they were traveling with so much moolah.
Per Nick Sibilla of the Institute of Justice, since 1985 Iowa has been one of the most vociferous enforcers of seizure laws, which allows law enforcement to take property even if someone isn’t convicted of a crime. Sibilla writes that more than 19,000 people had cash seized by the different law enforcement arms in Iowa, with 4200 vehicles, 37 real estate properties and $55 million. From now on, the Iowa Department of Public Safety – State Patrol officers – will not participate in such seizures.
In an official statement, Iowa State Patrol Sergeant Nathan Ludwig noted, “The State Patrol will no longer specifically assign Troopers to interdiction (seizure) duty on a full-time basis.” While this removes the State Patrols from the situation, individual city and county law enforcement officers can continue with their seizure protocols.
The actions by the Iowa Department of Public Safety may well be traced back to two poker players who decided to fight the system.
In April 2013, William Davis and John Newmerzhycky, two California poker players in the Midwest to take part in tournaments on the World Series of Poker Circuit, were stopped after they allegedly failed to signal when passing a vehicle. Citing Newmerzhycky’s alleged “fidgeting,” two State Troopers pulled the men out, searched the vehicle, and came up with slightly more than $100,000 and a small amount of marijuana.
Following Newmerzhycky’s guilty plea to a misdemeanor drug paraphernalia charge, the state seized the entirety of the $100K, sparking a federal lawsuit from Davis and Newmerzhycky that challenged the officers’ contentions. Davis and Newmerzhycky said there was no probable cause for them to be stopped as they had signaled and that the seized money was a part of a “warrantless search” and thus taken illegally. After the two men decided to stand and fight the case (and a review of the dashboard camera from the officers, which indeed showed they did signal), the Poweshiek County Attorney’s Office (where the case was held) chose to return $90,000 to the two men in the hopes they would go away.
The quick answer: they didn’t. Continuing with their federal case, the players forced the state of Iowa’s hand, with Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Peterzalek eventually deciding to settle the case prior to going to trial and, with the ending of the State Troopers involvement in these cases, hope to put the issue behind them. Peterzalek and the State of Iowa will add in another $60,000 to Davis and Newmerzhycky, stating that “in light of the complexity of the case and the potential exposure to the state,” it was best to take that action. Davis and Newmerzhycky were suing for damages and attorney’s fees that could have driven the cost to the state up massively.
In this case, the story has a successful conclusion for the players. But it must be said that it is not always in the best interests of players to travel with massive amounts of money on their persons. In most cases, if you know you’re going to a certain casino, if a wire can be arranged it is for the best.
