ATLANTA — An Atlanta man is fighting back in federal court after having his cash seized at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Attorneys for Brian Moore Jr. argued before a three-judge panel at the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in downtown Atlanta Tuesday that he should have his $15,000 in attorney fees paid after successfully fighting to have $8,500 in cash that was seized from him at the airport returned.
Federal prosecutors dropped the case with prejudice and returned the cash, but a lower court judge did not order them to pay attorney fees.
“How is that legal, let alone fair?” one of the judges asked prosecutors in the courtroom during oral arguments today.
“It’s definitely about the principle and the fact of the matter of what’s right and what’s wrong. And I didn’t do anything wrong, obviously. So, I just want them to do what’s right,” Moore told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray outside the courthouse.
In a Channel 2 Action News Investigation in November 2023 on airport seizures, we reported how DEA agents seized $8,500 from Moore as he waited at the gate for a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles.
He said the money was for a music video shoot.
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A DEA agent snapped a picture of Moore, who had green hair at the time, at the gate at Hartsfield-Jackson.
“They announced we were about to start boarding and I was approached by two women and one of them quickly flashed me a card,” Moore said.
He said they asked if he was carrying guns or drugs. He wasn’t. Then they asked about the cash he had.
“I’ve never been in a situation where I was being treated as a terrorist or a criminal or something less than a person,” Moore said.
He said he explained to the DEA agents the money was his to pay for his music video from the sale of his grandfather’s car he inherited.
“They put my money in a big Ziplock bag, and they told me I was free to go. They were like, ‘You might want to leave or you’re going to miss your flight,’” Moore said.
Moore was never contacted for more questioning by DEA agents and was never charged with a crime.
He fought for two years to get his money back and that is how he racked up those $15,000 in legal fees.
“The government decided to throw in the towel. And now the government is saying, ‘Oh, no harm, no foul. We’ll give you your $8,500 back, but not the attorney’s fees.’ But that doesn’t make Brian whole. And Congress said that victims of civil forfeiture should be made whole when they successfully contest the seizure of their property,” said Moore’s attorney, Dan Alban from the Institute for Justice.
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Federal data shows that at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport just one agency, Customs and Border Protection, seized more than $108 million in cash from travelers between 2000 and 2016.
A 2017 Department of Justice Inspector General audit looked at a sample of 100 DEA seizures and found only 44 of those advanced or were even related to a criminal investigation.
The same year, a Treasury Inspector General found that 91% of the money seized in cases it looked at was from a legal source.
Federal prosecutors argued before the appeals panel that they dropped the case not because of lack of evidence, but because of the cost.
“At some point, the government has to decide what is the best use of government time and resources,” Deputy U.S. Attorney Sekret Sneed argued in court.
She also argued that since prosecutors voluntarily dismissed the case and returned the money, and were not ordered by a judge to do so, they should not have to pay attorney fees. But a district judge did sign off on the agreement dismissing the case.
“The government didn’t want to pay those fees. It seemed to suggest that Bryan hadn’t proved his innocence. That flips the presumption of innocence on its head. That’s not the rule of law in the United States,” Aldan said.
Moore said the money is important, but he is also pressing this case to send a message to others.
“I definitely want people to know that they can fight for their property back because that’s the whole idea of it. They feel like they can just take things from people and they’re not going to fight for their stuff back,” Moore said.
A decision by the 11th Circuit could take several months.
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