Troy Goode pictured with family

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The family of a Tennessee man are asking for state and federal help after police hogtied him during an arrest at a concert in Mississippi and he later died, the family’s attorney said Tuesday.

Troy Goode, 30, a chemical engineer from Memphis, died Saturday at a hospital two hours after police arrested him in a parking lot at a concert by the band Widespread Panic in Southaven, about 15 miles south of Memphis, said attorney Tim Edwards.

Goode had ingested the psychotropic drug LSD and was acting erratically, leading witnesses to call the police because they believed he was fighting with his wife, Kelli Goode, according to Edwards and a statement by Southaven police.

Police arrived at about 7:45 p.m. local time (CT) and said he was “acting strange” and running from them, the statement said. They restrained him while attempting to arrest him for disorderly conduct, Edwards said.

The statement did not specify that Goode was hogtied, but a video taken by a witness and distributed by Edwards shows a man identified as Goode face down on a gurney with his arms and legs tied behind him and his arms attached to his legs.

Goode, who has asthma, was complaining that he could not breathe while he was face down with a strap holding his head to the gurney pad, Edwards said.

His wife was not allowed to go to the hospital with him, Edwards said. He was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Desoto.

He was dead before 10 p.m., Edwards said.

The Desoto County district attorney did not return calls Tuesday but defended police actions in a news conference and said the cause of death will likely be linked to heart problems exacerbated by stress and drugs, according to WHBQ-TV in Memphis.

Attorneys have asked the Mississippi Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice to preserve the evidence pending autopsy results and a toxicology report, expected next month. Edward said they will decide at that time whether to request an investigation.

Goode was a plant engineer at a local industrial supply company and the father of a 15-month-old boy.

A candlelight vigil is planned for Tuesday evening in Southaven.

Appeared on Reuters news wire; reporting by Karen Brooks in Austin, Texas; editing by Bernard Orr

Left: Illustration of police asset forfeiture; Right: Sgt. Michael Hurt of Morristown, Tennessee

A Tennessee police officer was indicted by a grand jury on charges of theft after he pocketed $6,000 from property owners who had their cars taken through civil asset forfeiture.

An investigation from the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury’s office released last week found that Sgt. Michael Hurt, a 15-year veteran of the Morristown, Tenn., Police Department, kept more than $6,000 in cash he received from property owners whose vehicles were seized by the law enforcement agency.

According to the audit, Hurt was responsible for returning the cars seized by the Morristown Police Department under civil asset forfeiture laws. Often times, the owners were required to pay the law enforcement agency a cash settlement or reimburse the agency for towing and storage fees, which Hurt collected.

However, in 2014 and 2015, Hurt kept more than $6,000 he collected from property owners, instead of depositing the money for the police department.

“I find it particularly troublesome when an officer of the law chooses to engage in dishonest activity,” Justin Wilson, the comptroller, wrote in the report. “It is important that police departments and other government entities understand the risks associated with handling cash in day-to-day operations.”

The comptroller’s office could not answer any more questions beyond what was provided in the report. The Daily Signal requested from the Morristown Police Department information regarding the number of property owners involved and the agency’s use of civil asset forfeiture. However, the department did not respond by the time of publication.

The Morristown Police Department told Tennessee Watchdog the property owners had their cars seized after they were arrested. However, it’s not known if the cars were connected to the activity. Those found not guilty entered into a court-imposed settlement and had their vehicles returned. They did not have to pay the towing and storage fees.

The comptroller’s investigation, done with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, found that Hurt “renegotiated” at least one settlement ordered by the Department of Safety from $5,000 to $1,500. The officer also tried to hide his actions by not recording having received the majority of the money and altering police department records.

Though officials discovered Hurt kept more than $6,000 in cash, he turned over just $5,500.

Earlier this month, a grand jury indicted Hurt on two counts of theft over $1,000, one count of theft under $500 and one count of misconduct.

In Tennessee, local law enforcement agencies keep 100 percent of the proceeds from cash and property seized under civil asset forfeiture, which gives agencies a financial incentive to seize property. Additionally, according to the Institute for Justice, local law enforcement agencies are not required to report information on how forfeiture funds are used or how much cash and property is seized.

The group gave the Volunteer State a “D” in a report examining forfeiture laws across all 50 states.

“Sgt. Hurt seemed to think he could get away with keeping $6,000, probably because of poor record keeping and lax enforcement. That no doubt factored into his calculus to steal it in the first place,” Jason Snead, a research associate at The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, told The Daily Signal.

“The real question is, how many ‘Sgt. Hurts’ are there? Without thorough and publicly available forfeiture reporting, it is impossible to say. Strict enforcement of reporting requirements is an important deterrent to this sort of abuse,” he continued.

In addition to a lack of reporting requirements, Snead said law enforcement’s ability to keep all of the proceeds from forfeitures contributes to a system rife with corruption and abuse.

“You wind up with a system where law enforcement is dependent on substantial sums of money coming from outside the normal budgetary process, with little transparency and virtually no accountability,” he said.

Civil asset forfeiture is a procedure that gives law enforcement the power to seize property if it’s suspected of being connected to a crime. Law enforcement agencies ramped up their use of forfeiture during the war on drugs as a way to curb money laundering and drug trafficking.

However, in recent years, a number of forfeiture victims have come forward after having money and property seized by law enforcement. The victims were never charged with a crime, and experts have argued officers are policing for profit.

This story written by Melissa Quinn for The Daily Signal

One Tennessee cop was fired and charged with assault after he threatened to shoot his wife’s car, and assault the owners of a home where she was staying.

Benjamin Fulcher, 35, is charged with aggravated assault

According to The Commercial Appeal, an arrest affidavit said that 35-year-old Memphis Officer Benjaman Fulcher was intoxicated when he went to the home where his wife and children were staying on Monday night. The affidavit stated that Fulcher banged on windows and demanded that his wife and children come outside.

After the woman who lived at the home came outside and asked Fulcher to leave, he reportedly placed his hand on his pistol. When the woman’s boyfriend came outside, he observed Fulcher remove his pistol and point it at the wife’s car.

At that point, the officer threatened to shoot his wife’s car if she did not come home, the arrest report said.

Fulcher’s wife refused to come outside, and he left. But the next day, Fulcher began sending text messages that included photos of items that he was burning at their home.

“I know she is still there, let her know the chairs, TV’s and entertainment center are all coming up next,” one of the text messages read. The arrest report said that Fulcher sent other messages threatening to assault the couple if his wife did not come home.

Fulcher’s wife filed a formal complaint on Tuesday. He was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and was being held in jail in lieu of $50,000 bond. He was also placed on paid administrative leave by the Memphis Police Department.