Viewers must suspend disbelief as the action escalates in “Rebel Ridge,” a new Netflix thriller about small-town corruption. Yet, the cash seizure in the opening scene mirrors real life.

Marine veteran Terry Richmond, played by Aaron Pierre, is traveling to bail out his cousin from jail when the police make a pretextual traffic stop in rural Louisiana. The officers find $36,000, which Terry has scrounged together by selling his truck and his share in a restaurant.

Owning cash is not illegal, and domestic travelers have no obligation to declare currency — no matter how much they carry. So, Terry assumes the police will let him keep his money. This is when he learns about civil forfeiture, a law enforcement maneuver that allows the government to seize and permanently keep property without an arrest or conviction.

Summer McBride, a courthouse employee played by AnnaSophia Robb, gives Terry a crash course in civil forfeiture while sitting with him at a diner. Nearly everything she says is true.

“Here’s where it gets real murky,” she tells Terry. “Chief gets to keep the proceeds, use it for ‘discretionary funds,’ whatever that means.”

Most states allow participating agencies to split 100% of forfeiture proceeds among themselves. The total haul across the United States topped $68.8 billion from 2000 to 2019.

The result can be a perverse incentive to patrol for profit. The more agencies seize, the more they keep. The more they keep, the more they depend on the money. And the more they rely on the money, the less they focus on crime fighting.

Once the process ends, agencies can spend the money on anything big or small. Summer says the fictional Louisiana chief once used forfeiture revenue to buy a margarita machine for Cinco de Mayo. This detail is ripped from the headlines.

A real-world district attorney in Montgomery County, Texas, used forfeiture money on a margarita machine. Meanwhile, a Georgia sheriff bought a $70,000 muscle car for his daily commute. And a New York district attorney treated himself to $250,000 in luxury travel.

“It’s like pennies from heaven,” a Missouri police chief testified at a public hearing in 2012. “It can get you a toy or something that you need.”

Summer explains the rigged system for property owners who try to fight back.

“When they bring this case, you won’t even be named,” she tells Terry. “It’ll read the Township of Shelby Springs v. $36,000. Because your property has no civil rights.”

This feature of civil forfeiture makes for some strange defendants. Memorable captions include “U.S. v. Approximately One Terrier Mix Type Dog,” “U.S. v. One Solid Gold Object in Form of a Rooster,” and “U.S. v. Article Consisting of 50,000 Cardboard Boxes More or Less, Each Containing One Pair of Clacker Balls.”

If property owners file a claim, they hit another snag.

“You can fight for the money,” Summer tells Terry. “But that will take you most of a year and cost you twice what you’re owed.”

This is often true, although it can sometimes take years and there is no ceiling on how much it can cost to defend your property. Civil forfeiture typically includes no right to counsel, which means property owners who choose to fight back must pay for their own attorney. Many people do the math and walk away.

Terry responds like many of our clients at the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that opposes civil forfeiture. “This can’t be legal,” he tells Summer.

Stephanie Wilson thought the same thing. But then the Detroit police took her car and left her standing on the side of the road in 2019. Officers did not give her time to retrieve her child’s car seat from the back.

Stephen Lara, a real-life Marine veteran, lost his life savings near Reno, Nevada.

Musician Phil Parhamovich lost the money he saved for a recording studio while driving through Wyoming. Christian rock band manager Eh Wah lost concert donations for an orphanage and school while traveling through Oklahoma.

Big-budget films often depart from reality for dramatic effect. But the nightmare of civil forfeiture is real. “Rebel Ridge” helps demonstrate why it must be abolished.

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ABOUT THE WRITERS

Dan Alban is a senior attorney and co-director of the National Initiative to End Forfeiture Abuse at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Virginia. Daryl James is a writer at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Virginia. They wrote this for InsideSources.com.

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