Pubdate: Thu, 03 Aug 2000
Source: Kansas City Star (MO)
Copyright: 2000 The Kansas City Star
Contact:  1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108
Feedback: http://www.kansascity.com/Discussion/
Website: http://www.kcstar.com/
Author: Karen Dillon, The Kansas City Star
Related: Series index, http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n682/a02.html

TEXAS COUPLE GETS TO KEEP PART OF FOUND FORTUNE

The federal government has agreed to let a Texas couple who found $300,000 
last year keep a large part of it after all.

In early December, the couple, a maintenance worker and a kidney transplant 
patient, found the money in a bag beside a road in Dallas. They gave it to 
police, who said the couple could keep it if no one claimed it in 60 days.

But a short time later the Dallas police gave the money to the federal Drug 
Enforcement Administration and asked for part of it to be returned to the 
department for law enforcement use.

An attorney said Wednesday the couple considered their recent settlement 
with the federal government to be a major victory.

"They are thrilled," said attorney Emily Shoup, who said the couple asked 
not to be identified.

But, Shoup said, "they still feel slighted in the fact that they were 
promised to get it all back and they didn't."

As part of a series of stories in May, The Kansas City Star reported that 
the Dallas police had circumvented Texas law when they gave the money to 
the federal government.

The series showed police across the country often hand off money and 
property suspected of being the proceeds of drug crimes to federal law 
enforcement for forfeiture. The federal agency then returns a portion to 
the local department to keep.

Dallas police said after the couple gave them the money, they found traces 
of cocaine on the bag and a specially trained dog also signaled the 
presence of drugs on the money. A gun also was found in the bag.

That evidence, however, probably was not enough to forfeit the money as 
drug proceeds under state law, police said. So police gave the money to the 
DEA because federal forfeiture law is not as strict as it is in most states.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brock Stevenson said Wednesday that federal law 
does not allow anyone to keep money involved in a drug deal. He was able, 
however, to reach a compromise.

"What we did was try to accommodate the people who found the money and also 
to take away the fruits of the drug trade," Stevenson said. "I'm very 
pleased that they could (keep some). It was their good fortune."

Stevenson would not say how much money was returned to the couple. He said 
the Dallas police had requested a share of the money the federal government 
gets to keep.

Shoup said the couple still is asking the city of Dallas to return $15,000 
that disappeared from the property room while police were holding the 
$300,000. Until that complaint is resolved, Shoup said she would not reveal 
the amount of money the couple got to keep. She has said it was a large 
portion of the total.

Sgt. Hollis Edwards, a spokesman for the Dallas Police Department, said the 
investigation into the missing money was inconclusive and ended when a 
civilian employee quit the department. Edwards said the department did not 
have enough evidence to file charges.
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