Police Confiscate $92,000 At Traffic Stop, Judge Orders Return

WYOMING — A simple traffic stop in Wyoming led to a nearly $92,000 loss for a Wisconsin man after police confiscated the entire life savings the man was keeping in his car.

According to a Wyoming Public Media post, Phil Parhamovich was pulled over in March 2017 by the Wyoming Highway Patrol on I-80 for an apparent lane deviation and failure to wear his seatbelt.

According to police, Parhamovich was carrying $92,000 in his vehicle — his entire life savings — for safe keeping after he made a deal to buy a recording studio in Madison. The studio, called Smart Studios, was the same location where Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins recorded some of their material. According to a Vox report, Parhamovich was stopped while traveling in Wyoming during a concert tour with his band, the Dirt Brothers.

According to Parhamovich, during the course of the traffic stop, officers deployed a drug-sniffing dog to search the vehicle. Police located the money hidden inside a speaker panel. Officers told Parhamovich that carrying that much cash was "potentially illegal," and pressured him to sign away his money to the State of Wyoming in a waiver, according to Dan Alban, who is Parhamovich's attorney in the matter.

The waiver Parhamovich had to sign before police stated in part:

"I, Phil Parhamovich, the owner of the property or currency described below, desire to give this property or currency, along with any and all interests and ownership that I may have in it, to the State of Wyoming, Division of Criminal Investigation, to be used for narcotics law enforcement purposes."

The Institute for Justice, an advocacy group, took on Parhamovich's case, and fought for the return of the money he said is rightfully his. “This has been a nightmare for me. If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone,” said Phil Parhamovich on the Institute for Justice website. “I am fighting with the Institute for Justice to make sure that law enforcement agencies—not just in Wyoming, but in every state—cannot take innocent people’s money for no reason.”

According to Wyoming Public Media, the State of Wyoming held a hearing in July and determined that the funds were "abandoned property." Parhamovich claims he was never notified of the hearing.

The state held another hearing in December, but this time the judge ruled that all of the money was legally obtained, and that it should be returned to him.

“We had a very pleasant surprise at the hearing today. We thought it’d just be a hearing about whether Phil Parhamovich gets a hearing in the future, but instead the judge ended up ruling on the merits and decided that all of the money is Phil’s and should be returned to him promptly,” Alban said in the report.

“My gut has been clenched for a long time. I feel like it is still going to take some time to unwind and unclench,” Parhamovich said to Vox. “But I feel incredible. It hasn’t even sunk in yet.” He thanked the Institute for Justice for taking on his case.

Image Via Institute for Justice/Youtube Screenshot