A poker road trip turned into a nightmare for two California pros after they were stopped by Iowa police and stripped of their $100,000 cash bankroll last year. Now, the men are fighting to get the cash back and believe they were unjustly targeted and illegally stopped.

John Newmerzhycky and William Davis (pictured) were on their way back from a WSOP event in Illinois when they were pulled over by Justin Simmons, a member of Iowa’s criminal interdiction team, a special unit that targets drug traffickers and has gained a reputation for using intimidation and bullying during traffic stops.

Simmons claimed the men failed to signal while passing another driver, but the poker players contended they were singled out due to their out-of-state license plates. The officer took Newmerzhycky into the back of his patrol car to conduct a “motorist interview” and claimed he displayed signs of nervousness, which could potentially signal involvement in criminal activity.

Simmons initially gave Newmerzhycky a warning and told him he was free to leave, yet before walking away, he asked if the men had any drugs or cash in the vehicle. “I figured, once they get our (California) addresses, we’re screwed,” said Davis. “They’re going to take us apart and take our money.”

And that’s exactly what happened. Simmons called another officer to the scene so that a drug dog could check for illegal substances. The dog quickly sniffed out the $85,000, which Davis kept in a briefcase, along with $15,000 and a marijuana grinder hidden inside Newmerzhycky’s laptop bag.

“Any time there is a large amount of currency, a drug dog will alert the cops to it,” said Glen Downey, a lawyer representing the men. “At some point in that currency’s life, it has probably come in contact with drugs… The cops will say, ‘See, there are drugs involved.’ It actually doesn’t mean anything of the sorts… Police officers know this.”

After finding tiny bits of marijuana inside the grinder, Simmons cited Newmerzhycky for possession of drug paraphernalia and confiscated the money. Adding insult to injury, Iowa police tipped off California authorities to the arrest; the California cops raided the poker players’ houses and levied felony drug charges against them.

Those charges were dropped once California officials saw a video of the traffic stop taken by Simmons’ dashboard camera. “If you sit down and you watch the video, you can see very clearly that they signaled,” said Benjamin Okun, a California attorney who represented Newmerzhycky on the felony charges. “If you have a bad stop, then anything that flows from that is gone.”

But the interdiction team wasn’t ready to give up just yet and filed a forfeiture complaint in an attempt to keep the cash. Authorities later agreed on a settlement of $90,000 after the men hired a local attorney; one-third of the money remaining will be spent on legal fees.

Cases like Davis and Newmerzhycky’s are becoming common on Iowa’s highways. Many believe that the interdiction unit’s aggressive tactics are spinning out of control and that they are effectively bullying drivers into giving up their cash even if they aren’t involved in anything illegal.

“The tactic is to find a large amount of cash… and they won’t criminally charge you if you sign a piece of paper saying you don’t know where the cash came from,” said Downey. “It’s giving the cops the cash in exchange for them not trying to charge you.”

The men are now seeking more money from the state and complain that due to the loss of their bankroll, they were unable to participate in a large number of poker tournaments. In addition, Newmerzhycky experienced serious health consequences as a result of the ordeal, suffering a stroke after hearing about the felony marijuana charges.

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