As the belt on the economy tightens we believe there are sure to be more cases like the Yellow House second hand stores outrageous case that has drug on since 2005. Laws and policies need to be changed to offer more protection to both the Second-Hand store dealers and their customers!
The Yellow House Store investigation started out simple. Police all across America assume if a second hand store is buying and selling products from the public and is not regulated like the Pawn Shops then they must be a Fencer.
With the new Rico acts the Government gives large amounts of grant money to Police Departments and Cities to do Money Laundering and Fencing investigations. This would be a big incentive for a Police Department with financial woes to attack a small business like the Yellow House!
A Prosecutor that is able to prosecute a Second-Hand store for Stolen Property and Money Laundering can Seize everything the business owners own. From the beginning the goal in the Yellow House case was to seize the Business property and home of the Neighbors. At one point the Prosecutor even put a Lis Pendens on both properties without giving the required 60 day notification to the defendants. Even thought it has been ruled that Lis Pendens are not allowed in the 10th circuit court.
Acting on assumptions and retaliation the Lawrence Police served a search warrant on the Neighbors business and Home December 2005. The search of the home started at 9am but the time of the warrant states 1:30pm. Hundreds of expensive undocumented items including expensive collector Guns from a locked safe were seized.
The police had a messy case, with no evidence and the local DA was not interested in prosecuting.
The next day they made accusations to the media they could not support with the evidence.
As a favor to the Chief of Police Ron Olin, Federal Prosecutor Marietta Parker, took the Yellow House Case for Prosecution.
The prosecution of this case (since 2005) has included 3 strong armed arrests, (even thought the defendants had counsel), the same case being dropped and brought back 3 times, the case has been through 5 Federal Judges, the Defendants have had 7 attorneys, had their property searched with and without search warrants at least 8 times, a staged FBI investigation was launched in 2006 by an FBI agency outside the Lawrence Jurisdiction as a favor for the prosecutor Marietta Parker.
On Friday Aug. 8th the defendants Guy and Carrie were arrested for “Obstruction of Justice” after requesting their attorneys be notified before they make statements or hand over paperwork to police in a stolen property investigation they were cooperating with.
The Postal Inspector David Nitz got a Federal Obstruction of Justice arrest warrant, (even though the case did not involve the post office or mail) and search warrant, during the search the surveillance video from the stores security system was taken and replaced with a blank tape. The Neighbors were put in the Douglas county Jail from Friday until Monday when they were transferred to Leavenworth Federal Maximum Security detention center Prison, and held there until the Judge had them released on Aug. 18th. On Aug. 19th the case was Terminated. On Aug. 20th the Prosecutor Got a third Federal Indictment against the Neighbors for Obstruction of Justice.
The Neighbors have stood by their innocence and chose not to be bullied into a plea agreement by the Federal Government!
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