While Ameal Woods was traveling to Houston from Natchez, Mississippi, on the morning of May 14, 2019, he was pulled over by Harris County, Texas, deputies for what they claimed was following a box truck too closely in his rental car.
No ticket or charge was issued. No warning was given. However, deputies did ask to search his car. Woods permitted the search, although no cause or warranted reason was given.
When deputies opened his trunk, they found $41,680 in vacuum-sealed packages. They questioned Woods and took the cash without making an arrest or filing charges.
Harris County authorities would claim the money was connected to drugs. Woods said part of it was from his own earnings as a self-employed truck driver, horse trainer, and part-time construction worker. Some of the cash was lent to him by his partner and mother of his two children Jordan Davis, as well as his niece. All of it was going to be used for the express purpose of purchasing a tractor-trailer in Houston to expand the trucking business he owns in Natchez with his brother.
A Harris County jury has just ruled against returning that money to Woods.
Related: Phoenix Police Confiscated Nearly $40K a Black Business Owner Saved to Buy New Truck — Two Years Later He’s Still Fighting to Get It Back
The cash seizure is part of a process called civil asset forfeiture. In Texas, the civil forfeiture law allows police and prosecutors to take money they claim they suspect of being used in or acquired through illegal activities. Critics say law enforcement can abuse this method by using the power of Texas’ civil courts to permanently keep the cash in their own budgets or pad their salaries. Also, the practice gives the original owners a hard time proving their innocence. They can end up spending months or years fighting in court to win back their own property.
Woods said he and his brother had saved and borrowed that money to purchase another tractor-trailer to grow…
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