In response to the article “When the police keep your stuff:  Alabamians lose property to controversial practices” featured in Sunday’s edition of The Birmingham News, attorneys representing the Homewood Police Department in the two cases mentioned in the article have assisted and authorized the Homewood Police Department to release the following response:

 The author of the article neglected to investigate fully the facts regarding Mr. Ranelli’s pending allegations.  Contrary to the article’s statement that “Ranelli has been trying since shortly after the raid to recover items the officers took from his business and is currently in a protracted legal battle to force Homewood to return them”, the truth is the lawyers defending Homewood, Hale Sides LLC, sent Mr. Ranelli’s attorney a letter in early July 2013 demanding that Ranelli come retrieve his items and Ranelli himself testified in sworn deposition testimony taken in October 2014 he did not want the property back.  Additionally, the Homewood Police Department has released fourteen  privately owned computers back to their rightful owners that were seized during this investigation.  The computers were seized on June 29, 2010 and they were returned to their owners between August of 2010 and January of 2012.

In regards to the lawsuit filed by Richard Hightower, a career criminal and Mississippi registered sex offender, a Federal Magistrate Judge released a “Report and Recommendation” recommending granting Homewood a Summary Judgment on Hightower’s claims, after review and verification of a “Special Report” with supporting evidence as ordered by the Federal Magistrate Judge also submitted by the attorneys with Hale Sides LLC.  A Federal District Judge in the Northern District of Alabama then accepted the Report and Recommendation in full from the Magistrate and entered Judgment in favor of Homewood and its police officers accordingly.  Additionally, the Homewood Police Department did return a recovered stolen musical instrument back to the University of South Alabama and attorneys from Hale Sides LLC recommended that Homewood Police keep any remaining property related to the Hightower investigation until November 8, 2018 when the appeal period ends.

Alert sent on 10/24/2017 at 3:08PM EDT

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