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Troopers took a Marine vet's $87,000 without a charge. A judge shut down their loophole.

Troopers Took a Marine Vet’s $87,000 Without a Charge. A Judge Shut Down the Loophole They Used.

by
M.A. Rothman

By M.A. RothmanSeptember 25, 2026 · 5 min read
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Stephen Lara served his country in the Marine Corps for 16 years. In 2021, the Nevada Highway Patrol took his life savings on the side of Interstate 80 without charging him with anything. The fight he started over that cash has since produced one of the most important civil forfeiture rulings in the country, and it is now headed for a decision at the Nevada Supreme Court.

In January 2025, a Washoe County judge ruled that it is unlawful for Nevada state police to take part in the federal “equitable sharing” program, the arrangement that lets officers hand seized property to federal agents and collect most of the proceeds afterward. The state appealed, and the ACLU of Nevada lists the case as ongoing before the state’s highest court.

A traffic stop, a dog and $87,000

According to Fox News, Nevada Highway Patrol troopers pulled Lara over in February 2021, saying he was following the vehicle ahead too closely. News 3 Las Vegas placed the stop on Interstate 80 just east of Sparks and reported that troopers alleged he was tailgating a truck. Lara, by then retired from the Marines after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was driving through the state to visit his daughters in California, according to the ACLU of Nevada.

He was carrying about $87,000 in cash, his life savings. Fox reported that a drug-sniffing dog alerted on the money. Lara was not arrested, not charged with a crime and not even ticketed, the ACLU of Nevada noted. Reason’s C.J. Ciaramella reported that the officers admitted to Lara there was nothing illegal about carrying a large amount of cash. They took it anyway, concluding it was likely drug money, and Fox reported Lara was left on the roadside without enough cash to buy gas.

Lara described the moment to Fox: “I knew at that moment that wasn’t the place to fight this battle. I had to stay calm.” He also said something that should stay with anyone who has worn the uniform: “It was the very government I would have laid my life down for that was trying to take my money.”

How the loophole works

Nevada has its own civil forfeiture law, and it is tougher on the government than federal law is. It includes court oversight, deadlines and a higher burden of proof. Troopers did not use it. Instead, they turned Lara’s money over to the Drug Enforcement Administration through federal “adoption” and equitable sharing. Under that program, Reason explained, the local or state agency can get up to 80 percent of the forfeiture proceeds, with the rest going into a Justice Department pool shared with other departments nationwide.

In other words, a state agency can grab property under a lower federal standard and still keep most of the money, all without ever satisfying the protections Nevada lawmakers wrote for their own citizens.

Lara teamed up with the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, and sued in 2021. According to Fox, the DEA agreed to return the money the day after he went to court. It still took about seven months for Lara to get his savings back. He did not stop there. “I’ve already got my money back, but that does not solve the problem,” he told Fox.

What the judge ruled

Lara’s state lawsuit asked the court to declare that the Highway Patrol had no authority to route seizures through the federal program. On Jan. 10, 2025, District Judge Connie J. Steinheimer of Nevada’s Second Judicial District Court agreed. Her order granted Lara’s motion for partial judgment on the pleadings and denied the state’s counter-motion.

The language was direct: “The Court finds that it is ultra vires for Nevada to participate in the federal equitable sharing program. While federal law clearly provides Nevada the option to participate in the federal equitable sharing program, Nevada’s Legislature has yet to accept this offer.”

Steinheimer leaned on what she called a longstanding bedrock policy that forfeitures are disfavored and must be strictly construed. “Without a clear dictate from the Nevada Legislature,” she wrote, the Highway Patrol “cannot undermine this bedrock policy and effectively circumvent Nevada’s civil asset forfeiture statutes by electing to participate in the federal equitable sharing program.” The court then enjoined the Highway Patrol from participating in the program until it achieves full compliance with Nevada’s statutory requirements.

The state’s lawyers had argued it would be absurd to require the Legislature to expressly approve every federal program an agency joins, pointing to disaster relief and grant programs as examples. The judge was not persuaded.

Institute for Justice attorney Ben Field said the ruling “closes the door on law enforcement agencies trying to evade their own state laws for profit,” according to News 3 Las Vegas. His colleague Brian Morris put it more bluntly: “Law enforcement has no business profiting from civil forfeiture.”

Where the case stands

The state appealed. The case, Nevada Department of Public Safety v. Lara, is now before the Supreme Court of Nevada, where the ACLU of Nevada filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Lara on April 22, 2026, and lists the matter as ongoing. Lara is also still pursuing damages and other claims under the Nevada Constitution, News 3 Las Vegas reported.

The stakes reach well beyond one Marine. More than half the states have passed some form of forfeiture reform, Reason noted, but police in many of them have kept using equitable sharing to get around those reforms. If Nevada’s high court upholds Steinheimer’s reasoning, it hands reformers in every one of those states a road map.

Lara, for his part, has made his intentions clear. “I fully intend on seeing this through until we succeed and we’re victorious,” he told Fox.

Conservatives who believe in limited government should not need persuading here. Taking an innocent veteran’s savings without a charge, and then using a federal side door to dodge the state’s own protections, is not law enforcement. It is a revenue scheme with a badge.

A government that can take your life savings without charging you with a crime has forgotten who it works for, and Stephen Lara is making Nevada remember.

Editor’s note: This article covers a January 2025 trial court ruling and a 2021 seizure, now on appeal at the Nevada Supreme Court, that drew renewed attention in September 2026.

Sources

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