In 1992, deputy sheriff Gary Spencer shot and killed a citizen during execution of a search warrant in California. Following an investigation by the district attorney, the deputy was exonerated.However, the district attorney’s public report of the investigation questioned the veracity of the affidavit supporting the search warrant, suggesting that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was “motivated, at least in part, by a desire to seize and forfeit the ranch for the government…. Based in part upon the possibility of forfeiture, Spencer obtained a search warrant that was not supported by probable cause.”
Read MoreIn Washington state, in 1986, police entered the homes of two Roma (Gypsy) families on a faulty warrant and searched family members – including a baby – who were not the subjects of the warrant. The families sought $59 million in damages, and the city and county countersued in federal court, alleging violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
Read MoreIn Tennessee, the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition (CPRC), a grassroots group formed to fight the eminent domain abuse, ran an ad in the local newspaper criticizing elected officials and developers for backing a redevelopment plan including eminent domain. The ad said, in part, “This Redevelopment Plan is of the developers, by the developers, and for the developers.”
Read MoreIn Washington state, a local organic farmer was arrested in a traffic stop the courts ruled was an illegal “pretext stop.” He filed a federal civil rights suit, and the city attorney’s office countersued for malicious prosecution, and for defamation based upon “outlandish statements” he made about the police officer involved in the arrest.
Read MoreIn November of 2008, a Texas developer sued the author of a book about an eminent domain development agreement he had signed. In addition to naming the book’s author and publisher, a book reviewer and the newspaper that published the book review, the suit also named Law Professor Richard Epstein, who wrote a brief review on the book jacket, lauding the book as a “page turner.”
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