( CNN ) -- Authorities who seized $ 8,500 and assorted jewelry from a Tennessee man after a traffic stop in east Texas have agreed to return the property after his case drew attention from CNN . Police in the small East Texas town of Tenaha are accused of unjustly taking valuables from motorists . Roderick Daniels said police in Tenaha , Texas , took the money in October 2007 after they stopped him for doing 37 mph in a 35-mph zone . He said police threatened him with money-laundering charges and promised not to prosecute if he signed over the cash , which Daniels said was to buy a new car . Daniels and other motorists who have been stopped by Tenaha police are part of a lawsuit seeking to end what plaintiff 's lawyer David Guillory calls a systematic fleecing of drivers passing through the town of about 1,000 . On Friday , after Shelby County District Attorney Lynda Russell refused repeated requests to discuss cases like Daniels ' with CNN , her office filed papers dropping its claim on his property . `` I just feel blessed , '' Daniels said . `` I am happy everything is going good right now . ... I just want to celebrate . '' Texas law allows police to confiscate drug money and other personal property they think is used in the commission of a crime . If no charges are filed or the person is acquitted , the property has to be returned . Russell issued a statement through her attorneys denying impropriety , and George Bowers , Tenaha 's longtime mayor , says his police follow the law . But Guillory , who brought the lawsuit challenging the seizures , called cases like Daniels ' `` a shakedown '' and `` a piracy operation . '' Guillory said authorities in Tenaha , about 180 miles east of Dallas , seized $ 3 million from 2006 to 2008 . In about 150 cases , virtually all involving African-American or Latino motorists , the seizures were improper , he said . All defendants in the lawsuit deny wrongdoing . In a written statement , Russell 's attorneys said the prosecutor `` has used and continues to use prosecutorial discretion ... and is in compliance with Texas law , the Texas constitution and the United States Constitution . '' But the attention paid to Tenaha has led to an effort by Texas lawmakers to tighten the state 's forfeiture laws .
the United States Constitution , Dallas , police confiscated money in Friday after traffic stop . Latino was stopped for driving about 180 miles in a 35-mph zone . He and others who had property taken have filed lawsuit . Town 's officials say they have done nothing wrong .