Cops Seize Man’s Property, Freeze Bank Accounts—And He Wishes They Would Charge Him with a Crime

KowalskiWally Kowalski, an engineer living in a farmhouse
in rural southwest Michigan, came home one day last September to
find his property swarming with cops. They told him that they had
spotted his marijuana plants from a helicopter. Kowalski has a
license to grow and distribute medical pot to several low-income
people who depend on the drug. He grows the plants in a garden area
enclosed by a barbed wire fence.

But whether or not Kowalski had a legal right to grow mattered
little to the state police, who seized his power generator—even
though it had nothing to do with his marijuana plants—and some
expensive equipment. They also destroyed the plants.

Kowalski told the
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
that they grabbed anything
likely to be sold at a police auction. He said they were positively
giddy after searching his house and finding his financial
papers:

“When they found my bank accounts here in my office, they let
out a yell. They said, ‘Here’s the bank accounts, we got him.’ It’s
like the happiest thing for them, to find my bank accounts.”

The police froze his accounts, rendering him unable to make
payments on his student loans or other bills. And he could no
longer complete the immigration process for his wife, a resident of
Africa.

The authorities haven’t charged Kowalski with a crime. They
didn’t even confiscate his marijuana license—probably because it
has no auction value. He wishes they would—at least then he could
defend himself in court, in front of a judge or jury. As things
stand, he’s unsure what he’s supposed to do to convince the police
to give him back his property.

After the Mackinac Center drew publicity to the case, the state
unfroze Kowalski’s assets. But his property is still in police
custody.

Thomas Williams, another southwest Michigan resident, suffered a
similar ordeal. His medical marijuana activities prompted police to
ransack his property while they left him handcuffed for 10 hours.
The cops took his car, phone, TV, and cash. Afterward, he had no
means of getting to the grocery store or even contacting another
human being for days. Like Kowalski, he hasn’t been charged with a
crime.

That was over a year ago. The police still have his stuff.

The Mackinac Center
interviewed both men
for a video spotlighting the abuses of
police forfeiture. Watch that below. Read more from Reason
on the subject here.

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