Ending the Abuse While defense lawyers talk of reforming the law, agencies that initiate forfeiture scarcely talk at all. // DEA headquarters makes a spectacle of busts like the seizure of fraternity houses at the University of Virginia in March. But it refuses to supply detailed information on the small cases that account for most of its activity. // Local prosecutors are just as tight-lipped. Thomas Corbett, U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania, seals court documents on forfeitures because "there are just some things I don't want to publicize. the person whose assets we seize will eventually know, and who else has to?'' Although some investigations need to be protected, there is an "inappropriate secrecy'' spreading throughout the country, says Jeffrey Weiner, president-elect of the 25000 member National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. // "The Justice Department boasts of the few big fish they catch. But they throw a cloak of secrecy over the information on how many innocent people are getting swept up in the same seizure net, so no one can see the enormity of the atrocity.'' // Terwilliger says the net catches the right people: "bad guys'' as he calls them. // But a 1990 Justice report on drug task forces in 15 states found they stayed away from the in-depth financial investigations needed to cripple major traffickers. Instead, "they're going for the easy stuff,'' says James "Chip'' Coldren, Jr., executive director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, a research arm of the federal Justice Department. Lawyers who say the law needs to be changed start with the basics: The government shouldn't be allowed to take property until after it proves the owner guilty of a crime. // But they go on to list other improvements, including having police abide by their state laws, which often don't give police as much latitude as the federal law. Now they can use federal courts to circumvent the state. Tracy Thomas is caught in that very bind. // A jurisprudence version of the shell game hides roughly $13000 taken from Thomas, a resident of Chester, near Philadelphia. // Thomas was visiting in his godson's home on Memorial Day, 1990, when local police entered looking for drugs allegedly sold by the godson. They found none and didn't file a criminal charge in the incident. But they seized $13000 from Thomas, who works as a $70000-a-year engineer, says his attorney, Clinton Johnson. // The cash was left over from a Sheriff's sale he'd attended a few days before, court records show. the sale required cash -- much like the government's own auctions. // During a hearing over the seized money, Thomas presented a withdrawal slip showing he'd removed money from his credit union shortly before the trip and a receipt showing how much he had paid for the property he'd bought at the sale. The balance was $13000. // On June 22, 1990, a state judge ordered Chester police to return Thomas' cash. // They haven't. Just before the court order was issued, the police turned over the cash to the DEA for processing as a federal case, forcing Thomas to fight another level of government. Thomas is now suing the Chester police, the arresting officer, and the DEA. // "When DEA took over that money, what they in effect told a local police department is that it's OK to break the law,'' says Clinton Johnson, attorney for Thomas. Police manipulate the courts not only to make it harder on owners to recover property, but to make it easier for police to get a hefty share of any forfeited goods. In federal court, local police are guaranteed up to 80 percent of the take -- a percentage that may be more than they'd receive under state law. // Pennsylvania's leading police agency -- the state police -- and the state's lead prosecutor -- the Attorney General bickered for two years over state police taking cases to federal court, an arrangement that cut the Attorney General out of the sharing. The two state agencies now have a written agreement on how to divvy the take. // The same debate is heard around the nation. // The hallways outside Cleveland courtrooms ring with arguments over who will get what, says Jay Milano, a Cleveland criminal defense attorney. "It's causing a feeding frenzy."
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* Origin: Shark's Mouth 313-658-1110 750 MEGS Dual Amiga/IBM (23:313/108)