It took lower than a month for South Carolina police to arrest a person accused of stealing practically $20,000 from a Black girl named Tamia Sims-Irby in 2022.
However three years later, Greenville police have but to return the cash to her, claiming she should receive a court docket order to show the cash actually belongs to her.
Final month, Sims-Irby filed a lawsuit towards the Greenville Police Division within the hopes of acquiring that court docket order.
The lawsuit filed on April 23, obtained by Atlanta Black Star, argues {that a} man named Tyjailon Smith pleaded responsible to the crime in 2023, admitting to the court docket he stole the cash from her in an armed theft. Since then, no one else has claimed possession of the cash.
“It’s undoubtedly a nightmare,” Sims-Irby advised Fox Carolina. “I nonetheless have scars from being pistol-whipped. It was chaos. It was simply an excessive amount of occurring. I used to be stabbed and robbed for a big amount of cash.”
The truth that Greenville police even preserve possession of the cash is questionable, contemplating the crime occurred in Atlanta, was investigated by Atlanta police, and was prosecuted by the Fulton County District Legal professional’s Workplace.
Except for arresting Smith on a warrant out of Georgia, Greenville police performed no function in investigating the armed theft that occurred on April 30, 2022, so it’s not clear why they even have the cash within the first place.
“I’ve been coping with this for 3 years,” Sims-Irby advised Fox Carolina. “I’m 21 as we speak, and this occurred once I was 18.”
The Armed Theft
Fulton County court docket data state that Sims-Irby and a feminine pal drove down from Greenville to Atlanta to work at a strip membership, which is how she apparently obtained the cash.
They then met up with 4 male acquaintances who had additionally pushed from Greenville to Atlanta, a drive of about two hours and 45 minutes.
However the males determined to rob them at gunpoint in a lodge parking zone, with one in all them donning a masks whereas the opposite three remained within the automobile.
The person with the gun has by no means been recognized or apprehended, however the different three males who remained within the automobile have been Smith, Joshua Knuckles and Jailyn Taylor, who have been indicted on August 4, 2022, court docket data present.
Smith, who lives in Greenville, was in possession of the cash when arrested by Greenville police on Might 27, 2022, and was shortly extradited to Georgia as a result of he made his first look in a Fulton County courtroom the next day.
He accepted a plea deal for first-time offenders on March 23, 2023, pleading responsible to theft by taking and sentenced to 5 years probation.
That admission to guilt ought to be sufficient proof that the cash belongs to her, the declare states.
When Defendant Tyjailon Smith pleaded responsible to “Theft by Taking,” Tyjailon Smith admitted throughout his plea colloquy that he took $20,000.00 from Ms. Sims-Irby.
Defendant Tyjailon Smith didn’t subsequently attraction his plea, and the conviction grew to become a remaining order.
Upon info and perception, the Greenville Police Division is conscious that Plaintiff has claimed that the proceeds seized from Defendant Tyjailon Smith when he was arrested belonged to her.
Historical past of Refusing to Return Cash to Black Individuals
Greenville police declined to remark to native media as to why they haven’t returned the cash, however South Carolina has a infamous historical past of seizing cash from Black folks by way of forfeiture seizure, in response to a two-year investigation by the native newspaper, the Greenville Information.
Civil asset forfeiture is a course of the place regulation enforcement businesses are legally allowed to grab cash from residents in the event that they declare it was obtained illegally, even when they lack the proof to convict the citizen of any crime.
The Greenville Information investigation found that Black males make up 65 % of the individuals who have had cash taken from them by way of this course of, despite the fact that they solely make up 13 % of the inhabitants in South Carolina.
The investigation additionally revealed that white individuals are twice as prone to have their cash returned as Black folks.
Additionally, practically 20 % of the folks whose cash was seized have been by no means charged with against the law and one other 20 % have been by no means convicted.
The investigation additionally found that one South Carolina regulation enforcement company, the North Charleston Police Division, earns 12 % of its funds by way of civil asset forfeitures, so it seems to be extra of a revenue-generating scheme than a security protocol, one which disproportionately impacts Black folks.
One other examine revealed that police all through the nation raked in $4.5 billion by way of civil asset forfeiture from 2008 to 2014.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania additionally revealed in 2015 that Black folks made up 53 % of people that have had cash or property seized by way of civil asset forfeiture in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, whereas making up solely 9 % of the inhabitants.
“There’s a transparent line from slavery to the Civil Struggle and to civil rights to civil forfeiture,” Jake Erwin, a protection legal professional in Greenville, advised the Greenville Information investigative workforce.
Sims-Irby mentioned she is set to get her a refund.
“I’m not going to cease till I get my cash as a result of I don’t really feel like I ought to be funding a police division,” she advised Fox Carolina.
