Appeals court says $180,000 must be returned

A year ago, the story created a hundred and eighty thousand reasons for suspicion but tonight the Court of Appeal has ruled that the small fortune in cash found in a car must be returned to its owners. Last June a police patrol on Mahogany Street searched a black Mercedes Benz, ostensibly looking for guns and drugs. Instead they found fifty thousand dollars in the glove compartment and another hundred and thirty thousand on the floor. The three occupants of the vehicle were immediately detained and the cash was confiscated. But during trial in the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh maintained that defendants are innocent until proven guilty and because the prosecution could not show evidence of wrongdoing, the accused, and the money, were to be released. Director of Public Prosecutions Kirk Anderson, however, appealed that decision. Today, following his submissions, the Justices of the Court of Appeal remained unconvinced. As a result, the Chief Justice’s order stands and all one hundred and eighty thousand dollars are to be turned over to Joseph Garbutt, Anthony William Johnson and Caryl Meighan, the men inside the Mercedes when cops seized the cash.