It’s a victory for the stripper after a court ordered the Miami-Dade Police Department to return nearly $20,000 in cash to the woman and her husband, as well as pay for legal bills incurred in the case.
The department has agreed to pay more than $3,000 in attorney fees to lawyers hired by Ras Cates, 33 and his wife, 20-year-old Lizmixell Batista, a stripper at Cheetah Gentleman’s Club in Hallandale Beach.
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The couple was arrested on May 25 in Miami after police seized six guns including three assault-type rifles, suspected marijuana oil and several bottles of codeine that did not have valid prescriptions.
The police also confiscated a total of $19, 934 in bills that were found in Batista’s wallet. The police seized the money as they believe it was from illegal drug-dealing. Batista, however, argued that she was carrying so much cash then because she was supposed to go to the bank to deposit the money. A body-camera footage of the arrest incident showed the stripper telling the officers: “We’ve got bills to pay, sweetie.”
A friend of Batista, Haley Heath also testified during the hearing that the stripper earned “significant cash tips” at the Cheetah Club.
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Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Rodney Smith ruled there was no probable cause for the seizure and ordered the money returned to the couple.
The couple was charged with armed drug dealing and other felony charges. The couple’s lawyers, however, challenged the arrest and prosecutors dropped the case.
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It worked to the couple’s advantage that the body-camera footage showed that the police did not receive permission then to search Cates’ trunk. Prosecutor Johnathan Nobile wrote in a memo later that the search was illegal.
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Cates also legally owned the weapons and had a valid concealed-weapons permit.
Source:
Twitter: #MAGA #KeepAmericGreat! #Florida #Stripper #LicensedFirearms #SuspectedDrugDealing #IllegalSearch #LegalCase
"The police seized the money as they believe it was from illegal drug-dealing."
the drug-war has turned cops into thieving THUGS with guns and body armor. do a net search for "the story of donald scott millionaire". the "heroes" murdered him to steal his land to add it to the adjacent state park. none of the murderers were prosecuted. and this was back in the 90's. cops murdering for dollars continues to this day.
A few years back a friend and myself found ourselves at a local strip joint. The girl that just finished her routine came over and plopped her rather perfect backside in stool next to mine. She proceeded to say she was a high school classmate of mine, but refused to tell me her real name. Being this was 10 years after HS I couldn’t recognize her but said I’d look her up in the old yearbook once I got home. In the meantime I made small talk and she informed me she was happily married and brought home $500 on a slow night and $12-1500 on regular nights, and knew her looks were temporary and wanted to make the most $$ while she could. She also said her hubby hates her job but agrees about the cash as long as she’s home after work and doesn’t tell anyone her real name. This was also in the late 90’s before the strippers got all smearing their assholes in your face nasty. There was a zero contact rule at the clubs in my town and the girls didn’t have to do gross shit to random men. I never did find figure out who the mystery girl was. She said I wouldn’t find her or even recognize her walking at the grocery store the next morning unless she talked. She said she wasn’t the hot popular chick in school and was basically ignored. Today’s strip clubs are borderline brothels, like our rural strip joints were back then. Cripes I remember the toothless hag in her 60’s at the 1st one. Lol!
Win some lose some.
Body cams are a good idea for BOTH sides of the Law.
But talk about OPEN, LEGAL PIMPING.
The guy using his wife (STRIPPER) to provide his living.