ABILENE — The dashboard camera video shows eastbound Interstate 70 traffic whizzing past Dickinson County sheriff’s deputy Kalen Robison’s patrol car, which is parked crosswise in the median about three miles west of Abilene.
Robison suddenly pulls out into the left lane, accelerates rapidly and within a couple of miles pulls behind a white van, which immediately moves onto the shoulder and stops. As he walks up to the passenger-side window of the van, which turns out to be an armored vehicle, he tells dispatchers he believes the van has Colorado plates.
Robison tells the driver he pulled her over because the tag was partially obscured, then asks what she is hauling.
From this traffic stop, a series of events unspooled that resulted in more than $1.2 million being seized in what an attorney describes in a court filing as “the repeated and continuing highway robberies of armored cars by government agents.”
The next day, May 18, 2021, Robison again stopped the van, this time seizing more than $165,000. By that time, law enforcement officials had placed tag numbers of vehicles owned by Empyreal Logistics, the armored vehicle company, into a national database that allows high-speed computerized license plate readers to scan traffic and spot the vehicles.
On Nov. 16, the San Bernardino County, California, Sheriff’s Office stopped another Empyreal armored car and seized about $700,000. On Dec. 9, San Bernardino officers again stopped an Empyreal armored car, this time seizing about $350,000.
The basis for the seizures? According to Empyreal, the armored cars are transporting cash from state-licensed marijuana dispensaries to financial institutions, such as credit unions or banks.
“Shocked isn’t the half of it,” said Dierdra O’Gorman, Empyreal’s founder and CEO, describing her reaction on learning that the money from one of the company’s armored cars had been seized in Kansas. “I’ve been a banker my entire career — 26 years in the banking industry.”
After the California seizures, Empyreal filed a federal lawsuit against several law enforcement agencies demanding the federal government stop these “highway robberies.” On Monday, the court denied Empyreal’s request for a temporary restraining order.
“The court is compelled to express its concerns regarding Empyreal’s litigation tactics,” District Judge John W. Holcomb wrote.
Holcomb advised attorneys for Empyreal to stop cutting procedural corners and reminded them of their obligation to be candid with the court.
Information gathered from interviews, court documents, police reports, and a viewing of the dashboard camera video expose conflict between federal and state laws regarding marijuana, and the eagerness of law enforcement officials to justify their urge to “smash” Empyreal into submission.
Handling marijuana money
O’Gorman established Empyreal in June 2018 in the Denver area. Today it operates in 28 states.
“I decided to start Empyreal with hopes of trying to fix some of the challenges that I experienced on the other side of the service model, being a financial institution working with armored car companies,” O’Gorman said. “I have prided myself on my career being focused on compliance and helping financial institutions with their Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering (Act) compliance. It’s been everything that we do and every part of the equation for us, making sure that we are following the rules.”
