INDReporter

SCOLA trumps 3rd Circuit in canais cash case

by Walter Pierce

The Supreme Court of Louisiana has dealt a blow to a North Carolina woman who scored a major victory last February when the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal ruled she was entitled to the return of more than $144,000 seized from her car during a traffic stop on Interstate 10 in St. Martin Parish.

The Supreme Court of Louisiana has dealt a blow to a North Carolina woman who scored a major victory last February when the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal ruled she was entitled to the return of more than $144,000 seized from her car during a traffic stop on Interstate 10 in St. Martin Parish. The state's high court overturned the 3rd Circuit ruling, siding with a district court judge who earlier ruled that the state had the right to seize Tina Beers' cash.

Beers was travelling with her children when she was pulled over by a state trooper for an undisclosed traffic violation in January of 2009. A search warranted, according to the trooper, by Beers' nervousness led to the discovery of the bundles of cash hidden in the car's floor. According to court documents, Beers' claimed no knowledge of the cash, which according to state police was found to have narcotics residue on it following an examination by a drug-sniffing canine. But Beers was never charged with a crime or even ticketed for a traffic violation and was allowed to resume her journey, leaving the cash behind.

Beers, who is identified in the 3rd Circuit case as Tiffany Beers, later filed suit to have the cash returned and the 3rd Circuit ultimately ruled the state didn't have probable cause to keep the cash. But the state high court disagreed:

[W]e find the district court did not err in finding probable cause for forfeiture based upon the totality of circumstances established by the state trooper's affidavit. Because the court of appeal found there was no probable cause for forfeiture and reversed the district court's ruling that struck Tina Beers' claim, we reverse the decision of the court of appeal and reinstate the ruling of the district court.

Read the full ruling here.