It took less than a month for South Carolina police to arrest a man accused of stealing nearly $20,000 from a Black woman named Tamia Sims-Irby in 2022.
But three years later, Greenville police have yet to return the money to her, claiming she must obtain a court order to prove the money truly belongs to her.
Last month, Sims-Irby filed a lawsuit against the Greenville Police Department in the hopes of obtaining that court order.
The lawsuit filed on April 23, obtained by Atlanta Black Star, argues that a man named Tyjailon Smith pleaded guilty to the crime in 2023, admitting to the court he stole the money from her in an armed robbery. Since then, nobody else has claimed ownership of the money.
“It’s definitely a nightmare,” Sims-Irby told Fox Carolina. “I still have scars from being pistol-whipped. It was chaos. It was just too much going on. I was stabbed and robbed for a significant amount of money.”
The fact that Greenville police even maintain possession of the money is questionable, considering the crime took place in Atlanta, was investigated by Atlanta police, and was prosecuted by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
Aside from arresting Smith on a warrant out of Georgia, Greenville police played no role in investigating the armed robbery that took place on April 30, 2022, so it’s not clear why they even have the money in the first place.
“I’ve been dealing with this for three years,” Sims-Irby told Fox Carolina. “I’m 21 today, and this happened when I was 18.”
The Armed Robbery
Fulton County court records state that Sims-Irby and a female friend drove down from Greenville to Atlanta to work at a strip club, which is how she apparently obtained the money.
They then met up with four male acquaintances who had also driven from Greenville to Atlanta, a drive of about two hours and 45 minutes.
But the males decided to rob them at gunpoint in a hotel parking lot, with one of them donning a mask while the other three remained in the car.
The man with the gun has never been identified or apprehended, but the other three men who remained in the car were Smith, Joshua Knuckles and Jailyn Taylor, who were indicted on August 4, 2022, court records show.
Smith, who lives in Greenville, was in possession of the money when arrested by Greenville police on May 27, 2022, and was quickly extradited to Georgia because he made his first appearance in a Fulton County courtroom the following day.
He accepted a plea deal for first-time offenders on March 23, 2023, pleading guilty to theft by taking and sentenced to five years probation.
That admission to guilt should be enough proof that the money belongs to her, the claim states.
When Defendant Tyjailon Smith pleaded guilty to “Theft by Taking,” Tyjailon Smith admitted during his plea colloquy that he took $20,000.00 from Ms. Sims-Irby.
Defendant Tyjailon Smith did not subsequently appeal his plea, and the conviction became a final order.
Upon information and belief, the Greenville Police Department is aware that Plaintiff has claimed that the proceeds seized from Defendant Tyjailon Smith when he was arrested belonged to her.
History of Refusing to Return Money to Black People
Greenville police declined to comment to local media as to why they have not returned the money, but South Carolina has a notorious history of seizing money from Black people through forfeiture seizure, according to a two-year investigation by the local newspaper, the Greenville News.
Civil asset forfeiture is a process where law enforcement agencies are legally allowed to seize money from citizens if they claim it was obtained illegally, even if they lack the evidence to convict the citizen of any crime.
The Greenville News investigation discovered that Black men make up 65 percent of the people who have had money taken from them through this process, even though they only make up 13 percent of the population in South Carolina.
The investigation also revealed that white people are twice as likely to have their money returned as Black people.
Also, nearly 20 percent of the people whose money was seized were never charged with a crime and another 20 percent were never convicted.
The investigation also discovered that one South Carolina law enforcement agency, the North Charleston Police Department, earns 12 percent of its budget through civil asset forfeitures, so it appears to be more of a revenue-generating scheme than a safety protocol, one that disproportionately affects Black people.
Another study revealed that police throughout the country raked in $4.5 billion through civil asset forfeiture from 2008 to 2014.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania also revealed in 2015 that Black people made up 53 percent of people who have had money or property seized through civil asset forfeiture in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, while making up only 9 percent of the population.
“There’s a clear line from slavery to the Civil War and to civil rights to civil forfeiture,” Jake Erwin, a defense attorney in Greenville, told the Greenville News investigative team.
Sims-Irby said she is determined to get her money back.
“I’m not going to stop until I get my money because I don’t feel like I should be funding a police department,” she told Fox Carolina.
