The Department of Justice was absolved of any wrongdoing by a federal judge in a case where a FBI agent crashed a 1995 Ferrari F50 being detained for investigative purposes. Motors Insurance Corporation (MIC) sued the U.S. Department of Justice for its refusal to pay for the totaled F50, which is valued by the insurance company at $750,000. U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn ruled that federal law grants immunity to law enforcement agencies if property is being held for investigation purposes. FBI Agent Fred Kingston crashed the Ferrari F50 on May 27, 2009, in Lexington, Kentucky, while driving the seized sports car to a storage warehouse. MIC claims the FBI agent and his passenger, an assistant to the attorney in the case, were on a joy ride.

The car was originally stolen on September 16, 2003, from Algar Ferrari in Rosemont, Pennsylvania. MIC took title of the automobile (which was later recovered in Lexington, Kentucky, in August 2008) when it paid Algar Ferrari for its $625,000 insurance claim. The FBI kept the car as part of its investigation. The insurance company asserts that Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Hamilton Thompson was invited for a joy ride by the FBI Agent Fred Kingston before moving the automobile to an impound garage.

"Just a few seconds after we left the parking lot, we went around a curve, and the rear of the car began sliding," Thompson wrote in an email to a superior. "The agent tried to regain control, but the car fishtailed and slid sideways up onto the curb. The vehicle came to rest against a row of bushes and a small tree. Both myself and the agent exited of our own power."

[via theNewspaper.com]

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