A suspended Ball State student is fighting the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency over money supposedly saved for school costs.
Bronson T. Westbrook, 24, is now fighting back against the university and the DEA after the agency tried to confiscate $14,610 they think he earned from drug dealing, even though he said he saved up the money to pay for college.
On March 2, 2014, Muncie police arrested Westbrook after he got in a traffic accident at Jackson and Hackley streets. MPD reports from the incident said police seized $14,610 in cash stowed underneath a seat in the vehicle, and 24.5 grams of marijuana was also confiscated from Westbrook’s car. Westbrook told officers the substance was for personal use, and that he smoked a lot of it, the police reports said.
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Westbrook was charged with maintaining a common nuisance, operating while intoxicated and possession of marijuana, according to arrest records. He is still awaiting trial for these charges, as well as unrelated charges of resisting law enforcement, receiving stolen property and possession of marijuana.
Police surrendered the money found in Westbrook’s car over to the DEA, and federal prosecutors are now searching for a court order to forfeit it, stating in court that it’s traceable to proceeds from marijuana dealing.
However, during court pleadings, Westbrook said the money was his personal property and that he had been saving the cash for five years while he was a college student at Ivy Tech Community College and Ball State to "support my education, living expenses and well-being of myself and my mother," he wrote.
Westbrook said his earnings — the $14,610 in cash — included income from lawn care, a three-month job at Wendy's, seven months at Motivate Our Minds and seven months at the Ball State L.A. Pittenger Student Center.
In April of this year while at a hearing in front of a federal judge in Indianapolis, Westbrook said he has never been charged with trafficking marijuana, despite three years of surveillance by MPD.
With no solid proof from investigators proving that he “has distributed multiple pounds of high-grade marijuana,” according to federal prosecutors during court proceedings, the Muncie prosecutors have nothing more than an "abstract, theoretical, non-concrete synopsis put forth as evidence," Westbrook said.
Westbrook is also representing himself in a federal lawsuit against Ball State, claiming the university violated his rights when suspending him for the 2015-16 academic year — a result of his pending criminal charges. Westbrook is now seeking reinstatement, a public apology from the university, monetary damages and expungement of the record of his suspension because he has not been tried or convicted of the criminal charges for which he was suspended from school, according to his court documents.
Less than two weeks after U.S. Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson gave Westbrook a final opportunity to file an amended complaint to show cause as to why the lawsuit should not be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction and failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, Westbrook was arrested by Muncie police again early on the morning on Oct. 31 during a traffic stop.
After this incident, Muncie police reports said they seized a 9-mm. handgun containing 16 rounds of ammunition hidden under the seat of the car he was driving, as well as $489 in cash and 49 grams of marijuana. Police said the gun was stolen, and Westbrook was taken to the Delaware County Jail on preliminary charges of theft of a handgun, carrying a handgun without a license as a convicted felon and dealing in marijuana.
Westbrook was freed after paying a bondsman a percentage of his $25,000 bond.
Magnus-Stinson has yet to rule on marijuana forfeit, and the U.S. attorney's office said Westbrook has failed to appear for a court conference, has not responded to all of the office’s investigative requests and has been slow, evasive and disobedient during the recent court proceedings.
Westbrook is not permitted on Ball State's campus.
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