Lowell woman sues over seized cash
Was carrying father’s life savings at airport
A city woman filed suit after $82,000 was taken at an airport.
Lowell resident Rebecca Brown had stowed her father’s life savings — over $82,000 in cash — in a beach bag. But as she tried to board a flight at Pittsburgh International Airport, the money was seized.
Brown and her father, 79-yearold Terry Rolin, have since filed a class-action lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Transportation Security Administration, claiming their constitutional rights have been violated.
Rolin, a retired railroad engineer, has hidden envelopes of cash between the basement walls and rafters of his South Fayette, Pa., home for years, according to a complaint filed by
the Libertarian nonprofit Institute for Justice. He told the nonprofit that he got the habit from his parents, who lived through the Great Depression.
In November 2018, Rolin sold his home and moved into a small apartment in Morgan, Pa. The following August, he entrusted Brown with a Tupperware container full of $82,373 to deposit into a new joint bank account, according to the complaint.
Some of the money was immediately earmarked for Rolin’s emergency dental care and truck repairs, and tax debt accrued by Brown, the complaint states. On the morning of Aug. 26, Brown packed the cash into a carry-on beach bag and headed to the airport.
Brown was questioned by TSA staff about the cash. They photocopied her identification and boarding pass, and held her luggage until a state trooper arrived. After more questioning, she was allowed to continue to her gate, the complaint states.
At the gate, she was approached by the same trooper and a DEA agent, who requested to speak with Rolin over the phone. Rolin, who had just awoken and was “groggy, confused and upset,” spoke with the agent, according to the complaint. After the phone conversation, the agent told Brown, “Your answers don’t match,” and confiscated the cash, the complaint states.
The father and daughter were later notified that they would lose the money to civil forfeiture, according to the Institute for Justice.
Neither Brown nor Rolin has been charged with a criminal offense, the nonprofit states.
“There are no specific allegations against Rebecca,” Institute for Justice Assistant Communications Director Andrew Wimer said.
“The TSA isn’t supposed to be looking just for large amounts of cash,” he added later. There is no limit to the amount of cash you can carry on a domestic flight, according to USA Today.
The Institute for Justice has filed the following claims on behalf of Brown and Rolin: two class claims that the TSA violated the Fourth Amendment and its statutory authority by seizing bags with large amounts of currency and without probable cause; a class claim that the DEA violated the Fourth Amendment by seizing cash without probable cause; an individual claim that the government must return Brown and Rolin’s $82,373 with interest; and an individual claim against the DEA agent for violating constitutional rights.
The DEA did not return a call to its Philadelphia office requesting comment.
Brown also did not respond to a request for comment.
The Institute for Justice previously represented Russ Caswell, a Tewksbury motel owner, in a civil forfeiture case ending in 2013. The federal government attempted to seize the Motel Caswell due to drug arrests that had occurred there over the years. U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Dein ruled that Caswell was innocent.