[IP] civil asset forfeiture
Begin forwarded message:
From: Anton Sherwood <bronto@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 23, 2006 12:05:09 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, Andreas Ramos <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
vgill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: civil asset forfeiture
From: Andreas Ramos <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 22, 2006 2:15:44 AM EDT
If local cops seize "drug assets", the forfeiture laws let the money
go to them. So local cops have an incentive to seize "assets". This
includes houses, cars, boats, cash, etc.
Does it have to be drug assets? Well, to get it back, you have to
prove that it is not drug related. That's federal court, and it can
cost $50,000 or more in legal fees. . . .
Plus a deposit of some fraction of the value in question. I heard of
one case where someone got his airplane back, found it had been
ruined by neglect, and was billed for a storage fee.
It's not only federal, and it's not only drugs: it's any alleged
criminal use of the property (by anyone). In one famous case the
defendant was a car that was used to pick up prostitutes. The car
belonged to a married couple; the wife litigated on the grounds that
she shouldn't be punished (lose her half of the car) for her
husband's offense. She lost 5-4 at the Supreme Court in 1996.
The property itself is the defendant in such cases, and since it's
not a citizen it enjoys no presumption of innocence.
The Pittsburgh Press ran a famous series on the subject in 1991;
the Web seems to have multiple copies.
--
Anton Sherwood, http://www.ogre.nu/
"How'd ya like to climb this high *without* no mountain?" --Porky Pine
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