2018-03-29 S. Dakota: Rev. Rudy Stanko's Truck Impounded

[Rev.Cambeul]

Judge upholds impounding of white supremacist's cattle truck

Jonathan Ellis | Argus Leader | 29 March 2018

https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2018/03/29/judge-upholds-impounding-white-supremacists-cattle-truck/469496002

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a man who sued the South Dakota Highway Patrol for seizing his cattle truck and jailing his driver.

Judge Jeffrey Viken ruled that a Highway Patrol trooper acted within the scope of the law when he pulled over a cattle truck near Whitewood, S.D. on March 20, 2017. The driver, Joshua Kemerling, was ordered to drive to a commercial parking lot where the truck was weighed and found to be overweight. The truck also did not have a fuel permit.

Kemerling was arrested and jailed after his employer, Rudy STANKO, initially refused to post bond for Kemerling.

STANKO filed suit against the Highway Patrol and various individuals, claiming Kemerling was arrested and jailed without probable cause and due process.

STANKO over the years has filed numerous lawsuits in the West and Midwest against various law enforcement agencies. He was a self-proclaimed ordained minister in the white supremacist Church of the Creator and he served six years in prison in 1984 for selling tainted hamburger to school lunch programs.

See Chapter 41 of Trials, Tribulations and Triumphs by Ben Klassen - https://creativityalliance.com/eBook-BenKlassen-TrialsTribulations&Triumphs.pdf

In his lawsuit, STANKO claimed that his cattle truck was stolen and hidden in a backyard near Whitewood. He said his cattle were sold at St. Onge, which is northwest of Whitewood.

In his lawsuit, STANKO claimed the state and its troopers committed several violations, including false imprisonment and malicious prosecutions. Viken ruled that STANKO couldn't sue under those violations because he wasn't the person arrested or prosecuted.

STANKO also claimed abuse of process, but Viken rejected that claim as well.

"Mr. Kemerling's guilty plea acknowledged the legitimate, lawful nature of the criminal prosecution," he wrote. "The fact that Mr. STANKO's livestock truck was removed from the scene of the stop occurred in the ordinary course of Mr. Kemerling's arrest."