German Lopez · Friday, December 01, 2017, 8:24 am
The money was supposed to go toward buying a legendary music studio. Now his dreams are on hold.
Phil Parhamovich had been waiting for this moment for a long time. The 50-year-old had spent years restoring houses, cars, and musical instruments, often clocking 12-hour workdays, to save up more than $91,000. And now it was all going to pay off: He would buy a music studio in Madison, Wisconsin, where Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins recorded songs — not just fulfilling a dream of owning a monument to grunge rock, but also giving him a space to work on his own career as a musician.
Then came the police stop this past March. By the time it was over, police in Wyoming would take all of Parhamovich’s money — the full $91,800. Parhamovich, who has no criminal record, was not accused of or charged with a serious crime; he only got a $25 ticket for improperly wearing his seat belt and a warning for “lane use.”
But Wyoming Highway Patrol officers found and eventually seized the $91,800 in cash, as it was hidden in a car speaker — by getting Parhamovich, under what he claims was duress, to sign away his interest in the money through a waiver.
He has since tried to get his money back. But state law enforcement officials have rejected his pleas. Responding to a request for records related to Parhamovich’s case, state officials said they consider the cash “abandoned.” The state has even moved to forfeiture the money without notifying Parhamovich of the relevant court hearing until after it happened.
The traffic stop has completely disrupted Parhamovich’s life. He managed to get a nine-month lease of the studio he wants to buy. But he’s not sure what will happen if he can’t get his money back after nine months — and the realtor said that the primary goal is to sell the property, even if it means selling it to someone else.
“It’s been complete hell,” Parhamovich told me. “I don’t know too many people who put the kind of hours that I do. I don’t say that in an egotistical way at all; I was just working hard. … To just have some police officers take my money, it kills me.”
According to Parhamovich and his attorneys with the advocacy group, the Institute for Justice, this is another classic example of policing for profit and the problems it causes. Police initiated the stop for a minor traffic violation, but quickly escalated it further and further until they took a man’s life savings — all to use that money for their own law enforcement purposes.
We’ve seen cases like this before. Over the past several years, stories have come out of police abusing civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to seize and absorb private property, from cash to cars to boats, without ever charging the owner with a crime. Concerns about such abuses, including on the same highway Parhamovich drove through, led Wyoming lawmakers to enact stricter requirements for civil forfeiture in 2016. But with the use of a waiver, Parhamovich’s case shows how law enforcement can get around civil forfeiture reforms to continue policing for profit — and escalate even minor traffic stops into a situation in which a person’s entire livelihood is suddenly threatened.
A very expensive traffic stop
Parhamovich is not from Wyoming. He currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin. But he was driving down the I-80 in Laramie County, Wyoming, on March 13 during a concert tour for his band, the Dirt Brothers.
According to Parhamovich, it was during this drive — at approximately 6 pm — that an officer from the Wyoming Highway Patrol began following and then stopped him. The officer said the stop was due to Parhamovich’s improper lane and seat belt use. He asked Parhamovich to come back to his squad car, supposedly because he needed time to print out a ticket. Seeing no problem with this, Parhamovich agreed.
Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment