Pubdate: Sat, 05 Jan 2002
Source: Joplin Globe, The (MO)
Copyright: 2002 The Joplin Globe
Contact:  http://www.joplinglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/859
Author: Max McCoy, Globe Investigative Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

RULING PAVES WAY FOR BARTON COUNTY COUPLE TO SEEK RETURN OF MONEY

A case that was the foundation last year for a Barton County lawsuit 
seeking the return of drug forfeiture money has been affirmed by the state 
appeals court. The Kansas City, Mo., Police Department has been ordered to 
return $34,000, plus interest, to convicted drug user Vincent Karpierz.

The case also paves the way for Kevin and Nancy Peterson, a rural Barton 
County couple seeking compensation for the loss of their 80-acre family 
farm, which was seized by federal agents following a sheriff's and Highway 
Patrol raid on their home on Aug. 31, 1998.

In the Kansas City case, money was seized during a police search of 
Karpierz' Clay County home in 1998. Marijuana was also found, and the cash 
was seized under federal forfeiture laws and handed off to federal drug agents.

A detective with the Kansas City Police Department said the department 
preferred federal forfeiture to Missouri's Criminal Activity Forfeiture Act 
(CAFA), according to the appeals court opinion.

Under federal forfeiture law guidelines, which allow local authorities to 
keep up to 80 percent of forfeited drug money, more than $21,000 of the 
Karpierz money was returned to the police department, with federal 
authorities keeping the rest. Had authorities filed under the state 
forfeiture law, all of the seized money would be intended for public education.

Karpierz is serving a five-year sentence on the drug conviction in state 
prison.

The suit seeking recovery of Karpierz' money was brought by Kansas City, 
Mo., attorney Jim McMullin, who contended that authorities had improperly 
seized the cash in order to circumvent the state law and allow the police 
department to keep most of it.

Karpierz lost his case in trial court, but in November 2000 the appeals 
court ruled that police can't turn over drug money to federal authorities 
without a court order. The case was sent back down for trial, Karpierz won, 
and then the Kansas City police appealed the ruling.

On Wednesday, the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, affirmed the 
lower court decision.

"We've opened a can of worms," McMullin, 75, said Friday. "We're making law 
left and right, and so far it's all been for the good."

McMullin said that police must follow the law, just as citizens are 
required to do.

The ruling paves the way for two class-action suits and a half-dozen 
individual forfeiture cases that McMullin has filed across the state, he said.

The Barton County raid netted five patches of marijuana, which Kevin 
Peterson claimed he was growing to help his wife combat the side effects of 
cancer chemotherapy and severe depression.

The Petersons pleaded guilty to felony charges in federal court and were 
placed on probation.

McMullin said the Peterson home was sold at auction, but that he couldn't 
recall the sale price. Authorities said previously, however, that they had 
expected to net around $40,000 from the sale, once the mortgages were 
satisfied.

The Peterson case, and others McMullin has filed across Missouri, have been 
"hanging fire" pending the latest appeals court decision on Karpierz, he said.

Depositions have not yet been taken in the Peterson case, which names the 
Barton County Sheriff's Department as a defendant, but McMullin said he 
expects things to move quickly now, with the case coming to trial as early 
as March or April.

With 9 percent interest since the time of the seizure, Karpierz will 
recover about $46,000.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager