A Mississippi truck driver is reportedly fighting to get his life savings back after police confiscated it during a traffic stop.
In September 2020, Rae Young Chung was in his truck delivering auto parts to a company in Georgia when he was stopped by a narcotics officer.
According to court documentsChung was pulled over for following other vehicles too closely and driving 74 miles per hour (mph) in a 70 mph zone.
Chung, a South Korean resident, was 70 years old at the time and spoke limited English, and bodycam footage showed a clear language barrier between him and the officer. But the officer continued to question Chung using Google Translate instead of using an interpreter.
After consenting to the search, Chung told the officer he had cash on him, and retrieved the bag from the truck containing 45 envelopes with $5,000 each inside, totaling $225,000. Chung said every time he saves $5,000, he puts it in an envelope and keeps it in the bag.
The officer also allegedly found “discrepancies” in his logs and began to suspect Chung of being a drug trafficker.
said the officer,
“Based on all the other factors regarding the logs, the inconsistencies therein, and the fact that he admitted to having money in the car, at that point everything started to look more like he was a drug money courier.”
Chung also told Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) that the money was his savings that he had accumulated since 2010, and that he kept it in his truck because he lived in his truck and had no home where he could keep it.
After managing to find a loose link between Chung’s trucking company and another ongoing investigation, the state filed a forfeiture petition on September 28, 2020.
Now, four years later, the Mississippi Court of Appeals has reversed the forfeiture order, admitting that there was not sufficient cause to seize Chung’s money, and that the 70-year-old provided good explanations for why he wanted the money had with him. .
“Chung provided plausible explanations for these suspicions, and the State presented insufficient evidence to actually establish a link between Chung and drug activity.
The State has not fulfilled its obligations burden of proof, and the court erred in forfeiting the money to the Brandon Police Department. We therefore revoke the court’s judgment and order that the money be returned to Chung.”
Chung will still be hit with attorneys’ fees, so his lawyer is currently working on a contingency plan for recovering the funds, according to Forbes.
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