Cash Seizure at O’Hare Airport

Chicago criminal defense attorney and founding attorney at Edward Johnson & Associates P.C., Edward Johnson joined Legal Eagles and discussed a Cash Seizure incident at O’Hare Airport with a caller Chuck. Listen to the segment below or read through the transcript.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Bill Pelarenos – Legal Eagles Host: You’ve got a legal question for us, Chuck.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: I do.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: Yes, under the the asset forfeiture category. Either you familiar with this?

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: Ok. I wanted to share a brief story with you about something that happened to me not too long ago and kind of get your advice on what to do in the future if it comes up again.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: That’s right. Absolutely. Go ahead.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: Ok. [00:00:30] So I was in there. I was in O’Hare Airport a couple of weeks ago and I got hit up by the TSA and some of the security personnel and the police in the airports for a few things, a number of reasons. But what ultimately ended up happening was they had some cash and I was bringing with me to Mexico that never returned. And I’ve been trying to get a hold of various [00:01:00] CPD and other folks that were involved.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: And I haven’t had a ton of luck. And I was wondering kind of what my rights are and how I can handle that. That comes up in the future.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: I felt pretty helpless at the time, so I’d love to hear it kind of from wanting you to know what my rights are, is that this is. And just in general.

Bill Pelarenos – Legal Eagles Host: Yeah, go ahead, Edward.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: Oh, absolutely. OK. So you’re at O’Hare Airport. Most likely it was the D.A. that [00:01:30] took the cash. Does that sound right to some police approached you while you’re in the line or what happened exactly?

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: Yeah, that’s right. That’s right.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: So you’re trying to just board the plane and the D.A. came up to you and grabbed your knapsack and there’s some money in it.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: And how long ago is this wasn’t. It wasn’t done either. I think there’s like a 10 Caitlin Mateos way under that.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: But 7000. Yeah. Yeah. Around there. Just going to Mexico. So what what they do is, you know, sometimes [00:02:00] the D.A. flags certain suspicious activity. What were you taking a one way flight? Cause a lot of times we’ll see.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: People going one way.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: That, you know, to what we see, like go and people have a lot of cases where someone avoids direct or one way to California as well. And they’ll get stopped.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: But the money was actually in a backpack.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: Yeah, that’s right.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: It was another carry on small handheld bag, so you can contact my office [00:02:30] further if you haven’t hired an attorney yet, but we handle these asset forfeiture issues for you. What you’d want to get together is just any withdraw slips, any sort of earnings or tax statements showing the income.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: And then after that.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: Well, you could do is give it to the lawyer or the D.A. gives you a receipt. They’ll actually send you mail. You notice a forfeiture and the laws have actually changed. So if you stay in and listen to the rest of the show will kind of update you. In Illinois, kind of how those laws have changed federally [00:03:00] and state.

Bill Pelarenos – Legal Eagles Host: And so we’ll fill you in. OK. OK. Are going up.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: Yeah. I appreciate the advice. I mean, I’ll definitely hang on because no worst feeling in the world and kind of feeling helpless against the powers that be. So yeah.

Bill Pelarenos – Legal Eagles Host: Why don’t you stay on. We gotta talk. We can kind of talk after the break here a little bit further.

Bill Pelarenos – Legal Eagles Host: Ok. Don’t get shot.

Bill Pelarenos – Legal Eagles Host: I don’t think I got two questions for you. We got to go to a quick commercial break where we get about a minute left. OK, [00:03:30] can we get a minute? Fifteen seconds were good. Commercial break, Chuck. Edward, give me your number real quickly to contact you.

Sure. It’s seven or eight six oh six four three eight six seven eight six five six four three eight six.

Did you get there, Chuck? Yeah.

Ok. You could also find him on your Edward Johnson log that com. If you Google it, it will pop right up in all his contact information is on there. I got two questions for you. One, we’re going to return from break on your asset forfeiture case and [00:04:00] how much time we get. I don’t want to start the question before we go.

Bill Pelarenos – Legal Eagles Host: Thirty seconds.

Bill Pelarenos – Legal Eagles Host: All right. So, Chuck, hang on the line. We’ll be right back. We’re here. I’m fifty nine a.m. WCG 015. Ninety eight AM in Chicago. We’re broadcasting live with attorney Edward Johnson today. We’re answering we’re going to go and asset forfeiture, too, but we’re also going to do speeding tickets, too. So you checking on the line because I got two questions for you when you get back and. Well, we’re going to go to a commercial break. A welcome back to Legal Eagles. I’m William Pelligrino [00:04:30] is your host for the show. I have attorney Edward Johnson from Iowa. John’s a law that come here as my guest is answering legal questions. Before we went to break, we had a caller and I hope you still in line, Chuck. And he was saying that as he was going through the airport, going from here to Mexico, he had seven thousand dollars cash on him. And the DEA took it away from him as part of some kind of asset forfeiture. Chuck, are you still there?

Bill Pelarenos – Legal Eagles Host: And OK, you know, the two questions that I had for you, I don’t do a lot of traveling and [00:05:00] I haven’t. I flew once in seven years flying. Start my thing. What? From people that I know, they go on vacation. Usually the limit that they can take cash is ten thousand. I know people, they go to Greece and they take up to 10000 hours cash because they don’t want to use their plastic over their, you know, fear of their credit cards getting, you know, skimmed. That’s right. That’s right. You know, so they just go there, they bring 10000. They convert it to to whatever currency euro [00:05:30] dollars they’re going to. And you’re going to Mexico. I don’t see the problem converting that to the to the Mexican dollar. I think the limit is ten thousand, isn’t there? Well, you’re aware of.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: That’s what I thought.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: Yeah, but they took all 7000 for you for no reason.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: That’s correct. Well, they took your whole bag and everything. Then they and then your luggage up. Yeah. they got. Yeah. They didn’t just. Yeah. They took everything in my carry on bag.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: Did [00:06:00] they give you some. Gave an inventory form.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: They did, and they gave me a little bit of paperwork. I don’t have it on me right now, so I don’t.

Bill Pelarenos – Legal Eagles Host: Ok. When I was a policeman and the time we arrested or took any any type of any any any items, including money from defendants or suspects or whatever, we had to inventory it and do an inventory sheet and [00:06:30] give the give the subject a copy of the inventory sheet. So let’s just say if I was the officer at the airport and I took seven thousand dollars from you, I should have done an inventory. She wrote 7000 USC executive nominations. So if a seven thousand eleven hundred twelve and two dollars, that’s the exact. And I used to break it down in denominations, you know, I. Bill. Yeah. Hundred dollar. But you’ve seen that, right? Hundred dollar bills. Yes. So Edward. No see. Seen as paper. [00:07:00] One hundred dollar bills. Ten dollar bills. Four quarters. Whatever you got. We do an inventory sheet and then inventory. She should have been given to you as part of your property.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: It sounds like. So you did get some paperwork and then you got on your flight and now your seven grand. Out without yet without a backpack.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: Yeah, I mean, tickets in nature, me guys. This is real helpful, thank you.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: Yeah. And here’s the here’s what’s going to happen basically post. There is a House bill that passed back in September [00:07:30] 2017 that came into law 2018. And it’s a little different. But before you’d actually have to post seven hundred dollars, which is 10 percent of the amount of money that you would have to post and you don’t have a right to an attorney. And it was on you to prove where the money came from. But the new law is a little bit better. They’ll also use really helped push this through, but they’re actually allowing the burden to go onto the state and meaning that they have to actually prove that there’s a causal necklaced nexus [00:08:00] between you and the seize property, that there’s some sort of criminal contraband or property now. They didn’t find any drugs on you or anything at the time, correct?

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: That’s correct.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: And so what you have to do as you get noticed from them of the pending forfeiture and they have to inform you within 45 days.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: And, you know, in that time, you know, we retained an attorney from my office or somebody else, whoever you’re working with, that specializes in civil and asset forfeiture. You don’t want somebody that does [00:08:30] real estate closings or anything else. You want people that really do follow the law because there are statute limitations with filing a lawsuit. So if you wait six months, you’re gonna be in big trouble, not going to get this money back, especially if you have justified returns. But some of the things they can show, I have had people that are waitress’s that were cash tips that pooled their tips, sell cars, automobile parts, types of other types of income than you can imagine.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: And. They can all prove receipts, but [00:09:00] sometimes you can’t, and he gets it now back.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: 2017. They could take that seven thousand. But I think you fall within the parameters. You’re almost a default return. So you’re a good shape with that. If you just keep those bank records together and you address.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: Slips, you’ll be in good shape.

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: Ok. And if you don’t have anything, the bank records, right? Your dad, if you had a thing with your attorney.

Chuck – Chicago Cash Seizure Victim: Ok. What time [00:09:30] what time does your office open on Monday?

Edward Johnson – Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney: We’re open from 9:00 till 5:00, Monday through Friday and then weekend by appointment only. We’re over at 555 West Jackson Boulevard, suite 700, right, by Union Station.