William Freedman v. United States of America

Early in December 1968, the Grand Jury of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California secretly indicted Freedman at the same time it also separately indicted many named and unnamed persons with conspiracy to violate 21 U.S.C. §§ 173 , 174. On December 17, 1968, as part of a mass roundup of those indictees, agents of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office and the United States District Director of Customs, acting under an arrest warrant issued out of the Southern District Court, at about 6:30 A.M., arrested Freedman at his home in Los Angeles. His house was then searched and the arresting officers seized $13,000 in cash along with note papers and books, all belonging to Freedman.

On April 16, 1969, Freedman filed a civil action in the Central District of California against the United States (as well as the Commissioner of Customs, the Sheriff of Los Angeles County, the County of Los Angeles, and the State of California) for the return of the money, note papers and books, under the authority of “Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.”

On April 22, 1969, Freedman also filed in the same district a “Motion to Quash Search Warrant (If Any),…