…..Jennifer Boatright..…drove with her two young sons and
her boyfriend….to buy a used car…. officer named Barry Washington pulled them
over……The county’s district attorney, a fifty-seven-year-old woman with
feathered Charlie’s Angels hair named Lynda K. Russell, arrived an hour later.
Russell, who moonlighted locally as a country singer, told Henderson and
Boatright that they had two options. They could face felony charges for “money
laundering” and “child endangerment,” in which case they would go to jail and
their children would be handed over to foster care. Or they could sign over
their cash to the city of Tenaha, and get back on the road. “No criminal
charges shall be filed,” a waiver she drafted read, “and our children shall not
be turned over to CPS,” or Child Protective Services…… Later, she learned that
cash-for-freedom deals had become a point of pride for Tenaha, and that
versions of the tactic were used across the country. “Be safe and keep up the
good work,” the city marshal wrote to Washington, following a raft of
complaints from out-of-town drivers who claimed that they had been stopped in
Tenaha and stripped of cash, valuables, and, in at least one case, an infant
child, without clear evidence of contraband…… you needn’t be found guilty to
have your assets claimed…..in some states, suspicion on a par with “probable
cause” is sufficient. Nor must you be charged with a crime, or even be accused
of one……To Read More…..
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