The decision in Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Letroy Guion’s civil forfeiture case came down late Friday and Letroy got screwed.
A judge ruled that Starke, Florida police has probable cause to seize Guion’s truck and about $190,000 in cash, which in other words means the department gets to keep both barring a settlement or Guion winning a jury trial.
And the Starke PD has made it clear they want to keep those things, which makes this whole thing a little suspect.
This comes from the ruling, via the Press-Gazette.
That Guion was traveling in known drug area that one officer described as a “drug corridor” that has yielded more than 300 narcotics cases in the last 20 months, and that the large amount of cash and pot found in the same backpack were strong evidence of a possible drug deal.
The judge said he didn’t find credible Guion’s explanation that he was in that area because he was just “driving through town” on his way to a hotel.
I think there’s strong evidence of a possible drug deal if you’ve got blinders on.
I mean, if Chico the Pimp was driving that truck with $190,000 inside a bag of weed, then yeah. There’s probably something going down here.
On the other hand, when you consider that an NFL player who happens to have grown up in that shithole was the one driving the truck and $190,000 is approximately one-fifth of his yearly salary, it actually seems improbable that something nefarious was going to happen.
At least to a reasonable human being…
Southern justice at it’s finest, folks!
The good news is, this will probably all end up going away pretty soon. Guion’s attorney is working toward a settlement.