Without their badges, the Texas deputies who seized more than $40,000 in cash from a Black man named Ameal Woods during a traffic stop in 2019 would have been found guilty of highway robbery.
But with the power of the state behind them, the Harris County sheriff’s deputies were allowed to seize the money without probable cause through civil forfeiture by falsely accusing Woods of obtaining the money through drug trafficking — a practice that over the years has generated millions of dollars for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, which enable the racket in order to profit.
Harris County prosecutors even managed to convince a jury in a 2023 civil forfeiture trial the deputies were allowed to seize the money despite not having a shred of evidence to charge Woods with any criminal activity.
The money seized through civil forfeiture is divided between the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, so it’s no wonder prosecutors were so adamant to the jury during the six-day trial that the money was “intended to be used in the commission of the possession of a controlled substance.”…