cannabisnews.com: Prosecutors Seek To Uphold Property Seizure Law





Prosecutors Seek To Uphold Property Seizure Law
Posted by CN Staff on April 01, 2004 at 19:45:19 PT
By John Curran, Associated Press Writer
Source: Associated Press 
Hackensack, N.J. -- Fearful of losing a valuable crime-fighting tool, New Jersey prosecutors joined with the state Wednesday in asking a court to uphold a statute that rewards law enforcement agencies with cash, cars and computers seized from criminal suspects. They are appealing a 2002 ruling that called the practice unconstitutional. 
At issue: claims that police and prosecutors engage in the equivalent of bounty hunting by deciding which seizures to seek based on how much money and property they think they can get _ and convert to their own use. Prosecutors say seizing property from criminals provides badly needed assets to law enforcement agencies and that New Jersey's civil forfeiture law has enough safeguards to prevent abuses. Between 1998 and 2000, New Jersey's 21 prosecutors reaped more than $24 million from seizures, according to state records. Seizure proceeds have been used to buy computers, pay for overtime costs, renovate office lobbies, pay for airline tickets, refrigerators, golf outings and summer basketball league uniforms, according to Scott Bullock, a lawyer for the Institute for Justice, a libertarian Washington, D.C., law firm seeking to have the statute declared unconstitutional. More than 30 states have some sort of civil forfeiture program, but few devote 100 percent of the proceeds to law enforcement as New Jersey does, Bullock said. The New Jersey case, the first constitutional challenge to such statutes, stems from the seizure of a 1990 Ford Thunderbird from a woman whose teenage son was caught selling marijuana and used the car to transport it. The woman, former Cumberland County Sheriff's Department Deputy Carol Thomas, fought the forfeiture proceeding and won. Then she filed a counterclaim against the state, contending the forfeiture statute was flawed because it gives prosecutors a direct stake in seizing property. Superior Court Judge Thomas G. Bowen ruled in her favor in 2002, saying the statute did not meet the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution and that the profit motive tainted the process. On Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Boris Moczula and Burlington County Prosecutor Robert Bernardi told the appellate panel that while prosecutors decide which forfeiture cases to file, judges and juries decide whether they get to keep the property. Until 1980, proceeds from forfeiture cases went into a general state fund. That year, the Legislature amended the law to share the loot with county prosecutors and police agencies. "The incentive that's provided is an entirely appropriate one," said Moczula. "It is not an unconstitutional incentive." He acknowledged the potential for overzealous prosecutors misusing the statute, but said individual abuses should be addressed on a case-by-case basis, not by throwing out the whole law. Bullock, who argued for Thomas in the hearing, was joined by Edward Barocas, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union's state chapter. He told the judges that the public interest and prosecutors' interest _ normally one _ diverge when it comes to civil forfeitures. It's not the seizures that are unfair, he said, it's sharing the proceeds with the people who initiate forfeiture complaints. The appeals court did not immediately rule. The forfeiture statute has remained in effect since the 2002 ruling, pending the appeal. Bernardi said afterward that police and prosecutors would suffer if the practice were struck down. His county currently has more than $250,000 on hand from civil forfeitures, using it mainly for equipment purchases and overtime pay for municipal police officers assigned to county task forces, he said. "It's more than a benefit. It's a necessity, with the way county and state budgets have been constrained. Clearly, if funds are taken from prosecutors' offices, their ability to prosecute will be diluted." For now, the white Thunderbird that started the whole case is off the road and in need of repair, sitting in Thomas' driveway with 115,000 miles on it. No matter, said Thomas, 47, who sat quietly through the one-hour hearing. "It was just so wrong, what they put me through," she said afterward. "And this kind of thing is still going on." Complete Title: State, Prosecutors Seek To Uphold Property Seizure LawSource: Associated Press Author: John Curran, Associated Press WriterPublished: March 31, 2004Copyright: 2004 The Associated Press F.E.A.R.http://www.fear.org/CannabisNews Justice Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/justice.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #2 posted by schmeff on April 02, 2004 at 08:46:00 PT
It's OK to Steal from us Plebians...
...but when they try to take the car from a "former Cumberland County Sheriff's Department Deputy", that's when it becomes apparent that there's something wrong with forfeiture laws.Hypocritical pigs. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on April 02, 2004 at 04:09:43 PT:
Like pathetic, trembling junkies
"Please, oh, PLEASE give me 'my' fix!" they whine. "It's not fair!" they continue. "It's our money! We need it so very badly; we can't live without it."Yep, just like any addict, they get a taste of it, get hooked, and now they are suffering withdrawal symptoms. And just like any crack-head, they'll pimp themselves, lie, cheat and steal, to get it. As if it weren't ALREADY stolen.I was going to write more, but my sense of utter revulsion prevents me from doing so. Such conduct by it's law enforcemnet officers is unworthy of a great nation.
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment