Denver man found innocent; still required to pay thousands in impound fees
KDVR (Denver) ^ | 12/9/10 | Julie Hayden
________________________
________________________
________________________
_____
DENVER -- Robin McAnally was arrested in a reverse "john" sting and accused of soliciting for prostitution. From the beginning, he insisted it wasn’t true.
A Denver jury believed him and took just ten minutes to find him not guilty.
McAnally says that was bad enough, but the City of Denver seized his work truck and impounded it, under the city’s nuisance abatement ordinance.
The City of Denver will not release it unless he pays more than $5,000 in impound and other fees.
“I’m not understanding any of this,” he said. “I go all the way and spend money for a lawyer and then I get found not guilty by a jury and they’re still telling me you’re going to have to come up with more money because we’re not going to give your truck back to you.”
He says his 1991 GMC truck isn’t worth $5,000, and he doesn’t have that kind of cash. He says fairness would be for the city to acknowledge he didn’t do anything wrong, he should be able to get his truck out of impound without having to pay any charges.
McAnally was told it doesn’t matter that he was cleared in the criminal case, the truck impound is a civil matter. And unless he comes up with the money, the city will sell his truck at auction and keep the money for itself.
And in the meantime, he would still face a financial judgment filed by the city against him. “I’m not even asking for an ‘I’m sorry that we messed with your life.’ Just give me my truck back. I’m not rich, I can’t go buy another truck,” said McAnally.“I’m just a little guy out there working hard every day of my life.”
FOX31 News was not able to get hold of the City Attorney handling the case, but McAnally’s lawyer says he sees this happen all the time. He says the city is unfairly seizing vehicles, even though a person is cleared of a crime, and making them pay thousands of dollars to get their vehicles back.
________________________
________________________
__________
"Life on the line" my freaking ass.
