A North Carolina trucker has waged legal war against the entire police department of Phoenix, Arizona - after officers seized $39,500 in cash from him at a local airport alleging it was drug money.
The suit, filed in April by Triple J Trucking owner Jerry Johnson, demands the sum returned in full for what he slammed as 'false accusations' by the force, who seized the money during an August 2020 stop at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Johnson, the owner and operator of his Charlotte-based business, alleges that seizure was unjust, saying he had saved the money to purchase a new semi-truck.
Confident he could find a deal at an auction in Phoenix, the suit states, Johnson flew domestically with the cash from Charlotte to the Arizona city - but was quickly jammed up by detectives who questioned him about the perfectly legal haul.
The suit adds that during this supposedly routine stop, investigators became adamant that Johnson, a middle-aged black men, was in the process of laundering the money as part of an illegal drug trade.
Eventually, under the threat of arrest and further interrogation, Johnson cooperated with detectives by handing over the $39,500. Cops have since refused to return the sum, standing by their initial assessment that the credentialed North Carolinian was using his business as a front.
On Monday, in a crucial development in the now years-long legal saga, a libertarian-leaning public interest law firm filed an appeal in Arizona on Johnson's behalf...
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