ATLANTA — A Georgia man won a legal battle after the DEA took thousands of dollars from him, even though he did nothing wrong.
Brian Moore Jr. was catching a flight to Los Angeles at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to shoot a music video. He had more than $8,000 in cash on him at the time. What happened at the gate ended up grounding his music career.
“They told me that I looked suspicious, and they were just going to take my money based off the fact that I look suspicious,” Moore told Channel 2 investigative reporter Sophia Choi.
The incident happened in March 2021. Moore had dyed his hair at the time.
“I hadn’t done anything wrong; I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Moore said.
In fact, the feds never charged Moore with any crime, but they kept his money. He hired a lawyer who got his money back, but Moore was still out more than $15,000 in legal fees.
Last week, a federal appeals court ruled the government had to pay Moore’s legal bills too.
“I felt a little bit of justice finally,” Moore told Choi.
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Earlier this year, the DEA announced it was going to suspend the program that was used to take Moore’s money. But other federal and local law enforcement agencies are still using civil forfeiture to take people’s cash.
Dan Alban is an attorney with the Institute for Justice, who filed Moore’s appeal. He says civil forfeiture is driven by profit because the agencies get to keep the money they seize.
“That gives them a strong incentive to engage in seizures and forfeiture of cash so that they can supplement their budget and spend that money on virtually whatever they want,” Alban said.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to the DEA for comment on this story, but we have not heard back yet.
Alban said to stop civil forfeiture abuses from happening, laws need to be changed at both at the federal and state level.
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