Minnesota waitress sues after police seize $12,000 tip

[FSBlueApocalypse]

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/227647

Police are arguing the money had a strong odor of marijuana and that it therefore falls under a state law that allows money to be seized if it's found in proximity to controlled substances, the lawsuit states. A police dog also performed a sniff test on the money, and his handler believed the dog detected an odor, the lawsuit states.

Richie said police have told him the cash isn't available for independent drug testing.

Wtf does "his handler believed the dog detected the odor" mean? I think I'm detecting abunch of bullshit from the cops.

[Goaticus]

Drugs on money is an old con used for asset forfeiture. It is on the vast majority of money. Here's an article on it  http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/08/the-drug-residu/

According to the last paragraph "The scientists rationalized that since bills are circulated quickly, their geographic origin is totally unrelated to how contaminated they are. Thus, if someone gets caught with a stash of drug money, they can no longer blame the above-average levels of residue on the hood where they got it. "

Money laundering requires a quick circulation of money. If I had a large amount of money in cash I would be much more worried about the police than a civilian trying to steal it and if the police want to arrest you they can just analyze any bills in your pocket as proof of guilt. Also since I've spent quite a bit of time working with dogs getting them to bark with very few cues is really easy.

We actually trained a 150 lbs. chocolate lab to bark every time sir Mix a Lot said ladies in the song Baby Got Back in about five minutes. She was not known for being well trained.

[evensgrey]

I had thought that this had been settled (sanely) some years ago, when it was clearly demonstrated in open court that money that bills that came into physical contact with bills that tested positive (like, say, being against each other in a wallet) would then test positive, showing that the presence of drug residue on bills had nothing to do with the bills being involved in a drug transaction.

Of course, things can be a bit SLOW in the Midwest, sometimes.  (Isn't this the same state that violates the 1st Amendment by grabbing money that people make by selling the stories of crimes they've committed in the past, when that's ALSO settled case law in the US?)