On May 14, 2019, Mississippi trucker Ameal Woods was pulled over on Interstate 10 near Houston by Harris County sheriff's deputies for allegedly following another vehicle too closely. He was driving a rental car because his own truck's air conditioning was broken. When Woods told the deputies he was carrying cash, they seized all $41,680 of it — his and his partner Jordan Davis's combined life savings, set aside to buy a second tractor-trailer and grow his trucking business. No citation was issued. No charges were ever filed. Harris County prosecutors nonetheless pursued a civil forfeiture case to keep the money permanently, forcing Woods and Davis into a years-long legal fight represented by the Institute for Justice, which also filed a class action alleging the county runs its forfeiture program as an unconstitutional funding scheme, built on boilerplate legal filings unsupported by actual evidence of a crime. In October 2025, a Texas appeals court unanimously reversed the forfeiture judgment and ordered the county to return the money. Harris County declined to appeal that ruling — and, as of February 2026, still hadn't handed the money back.
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Commentary: Harris County had years to prove Ameal Woods committed a crime, couldn't do it, lost in court, gave up its appeal — and is still sitting on the man's life savings anyway. That's not law enforcement, that's just theft with better paperwork.
Source: https://ij.org/ll/victory-texas-couple-wins-round-two-in-forfeiture-fight/
AI disclosure: ⚠️ This content was researched and written with AI assistance and may be fully AI-generated. All facts are sourced from the linked article and corroborating sources.
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