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Mobile judge criticizes MPD and DA for handling of controversial tow truck seizures
A judge told the District Attorney’s office and Mobile Police Department Thursday that their decision to seize four tow trucks as part of an investigation into insurance fraud seemed unreasonable and was effectively destroying a company.
“I really can’t imagine any good reason for holding onto the trucks,” said District Court Judge Joe Basenberg. “The lifeblood of a company, which is a towing company, has been drained.”
Judge Basenberg offered the criticism as part of an early morning hearing that would have allowed the owners of SOS Towing to have their trucks returned and continue working while an insurance fraud case moved through the Mobile courts.
First arrests made in Mobile towing scandal
The Mobile Police Department arrested the owners of SOS Towing Tuesday after executing a seizure warrant at their business located in West Mobile.
Gary Lamar Smith Sr. and Gary Lamar Smith Jr. face eight counts of first-degree insurance fraud and two counts of second-degree insurance fraud, according to MPD.
A member of the Smith family told AL.com that Smith Sr. has not worked at the company for two years since retiring.
Four SOS towing trucks were seized during the investigation, said police. The trucks were towed by Pitts & Sons Towing, a company that has faced scrutiny and public accusations of fraud from its competitors in the city, including SOS.
Assistant district attorney Clay Rossi confirmed to AL.com the DA’s office was now formally investigating the case agasint SOS towing.
The arrests come just a week after a 60-day ban prohibiting SOS towing and four other companies was lifted. While representatives from the five towing companies believed that marked the end of the investigation, MPD told AL.com Sept. 11 that its investigators would continue the probe.
It’s not yet clear if further arrests will be made.
Teresa Hoffman, the wife of a driver who works for Southport Towing and who has been at the forefront of the battle to have the bans lifted, said that she wanted all towing companies to be treated equally.
Mobile police admit to violating city towing laws, but commit to changes
Amid a city-wide investigation into illegal towing practices, Mobile’s chief of police acknowledged Wednesday that his department had broken the same city laws that it had recently accused towing companies of violating.
Officers conducted an investigation at the police impound yard Friday and quickly issued new policies bringing cops into line with city towing laws, according to Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste.
“When we looked at our ordinance, policy and procedures, and then looked at our practices, they didn’t line up,” said Battiste, who added that his department was being as transparent as possible while it fixed internal policies implemented years before his arrival. “We wanted to make sure that the policy was being followed and that we were also following the same laws we expect the towing companies to follow.”
“We have nothing to hide,” added Assistant Chief of Police Roy Hodge.
Internal police documents viewed by AL.com show that MPD wreckers had been illegally charging storage, winching and dolly fees that went against city towing laws. Many of the laws governing towing practices in Mobile have been in place since 1988, said Battiste.
Battiste also said that the ordinance may have to be rewritten to avoid confusion in the future.
Could ‘illegal’ Mobile city law derail towing probe?
After being tipped off that investigators from the Mobile Police Department were on their way to raid an office belonging to his family’s towing company earlier this month, John “JC” Smith stepped inside the office and turned the thermostat up to 100 degrees.
“I took a chair and sat outside waiting for them,” said Smith, whose brother runs SOS towing, currently one of five Mobile towing companies under investigation for alleged illegal activity. “When the police arrived I said ‘I wanted to give you a warm welcome.’”
The officers spent no more than five minutes in the office before leaving, he said.
Despite Smith’s antics, the raid at his family’s 20-year-old business was symbolic of the new lows in the relationship between law enforcement and the towing companies who have for decades worked together.
MPD recently accused five companies of insurance fraud, specifically for charging more than the regulated towing fee mandated in the city’s towing ordinance, among other infractions. The five companies, which are part of the pool of 52, have been suspended from the MPD rotation list for 30 days pending the outcome of the probe. No charges have been filed.
However, the towing companies, some losing $10,000 a month during the ban, according to Smith’s estimates, have fought back. They are mobilizing support on Facebook, hiring attorneys and, more critically, raising questions about the legality of the very ordinance they are accused of breaking.
Alabama civil asset forfeiture faces constitutional challenges as lawmakers ponder reform
Halima Culley’s 23-year-old son Tayjon was arrested on Feb. 17 in Satsuma during a traffic stop in which police seized 21 grams of marijuana – less than an ounce -- and her 2015 Nissan Altima.
Tayjon’s case has since been disposed. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor marijuana possession and was sentenced by a Mobile County judge to two years of probation plus fines, court costs and 25 hours of community service.
But Halima Culley’s car hasn’t been returned, and her tale is the latest to be introduced into a federal class-action lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of Alabama’s civil asset forfeiture system.
Under Alabama law, a law enforcement officer can seize property if there is probable cause to believe it is tied to criminal activity. The owner then has to enter civil court to litigate the permanent loss of the property, even if it wasn’t used by anyone connected to the property’s use was convicted.
Alabama law awards 100 percent of the proceeds of successful forfeitures to the policing agencies doing the seizing and the prosecutors handling the cases. Critics of the law believe this creates a powerful incentive to utilize civil forfeiture as an extra revenue source.
In 43 states, police and prosecutors can keep anywhere from half to all of the proceeds they take in from civil forfeiture—a clear incentive to police for profit. Mississippi, for instance, doles out 80% of of forfeitures to local police agencies. North Carolina mandates that all forfeited properties go to public schools.
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