Pubdate: Fri, 16 Jul 2004
Source: Greensboro News & Record (NC)
Copyright: 2004 Greensboro News & Record, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.news-record.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/173
Author: Jen McCaffery, The Roanoke Times
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

CAR DEALER FILES SUIT OVER DEA SEIZURES

ROANOKE - Just because Bill Kennedy deals in high-end Mercedes, BMWs and 
Cadillacs doesn't mean he's selling cars to drug dealers, he says. Four of 
the Greensboro used-car dealer's cars have been seized as part of drug 
investigations in Roanoke.

Kennedy, 74, filed a lawsuit this week in federal court to get back what he 
said is $90,000 worth of luxury cars: a 1998 Lexus GS300; a 2000 Jaguar 
S-Type V-8; a 2003 Cadillac Escalade; and a 2000 Jaguar 3.0 S-Type.

Kennedy maintains that his luxury vehicles have been unfairly targeted by 
the Drug Enforcement Administration in Roanoke because DEA agents think 
some of his customers may be criminals.

"If a preacher's driving the car, they're going to take it," said Kennedy, 
owner of Herbie's Auto Sales at 1310 W. Wendover Avenue.

He estimated that cars he sold in Roanoke have depreciated as much as 
$25,000 since law enforcement officers began seizing them in the past year.

The people who bought the cars made down payments and set up financing 
plans, so Kennedy said he still has an interest in the cars.

Kenny Garrett, a DEA task force officer in Roanoke, said it is common for 
cars to be seized as part of criminal investigations.

Garrett confirmed that Kennedy's cars have been seized as part of drug 
investigations and said Kennedy at first just didn't want to fill out the 
necessary paperwork to make a claim on the cars.

If Kennedy can prove he has an ownership interest in the cars, he should be 
entitled to them, Garrett said.

Asked whether Kennedy was correct about his sense that he was being 
targeted, Garrett said, "Actually, we're targeting drug dealers, and I 
guess some of his property was mixed in."

Kennedy said people come to his dealership because he sells certain cars 
that people can get only in Atlanta or the Northeast, he said.

Kennedy maintains that his job is selling and financing cars, and it's up 
to law enforcement to figure out who the drug dealers are.

"People tell me they're bricklayers, barbers, run cleanup shops, have all 
these people working for them," Kennedy said. "Who am I supposed to believe?"

Kennedy said he thinks the whole thing started in September 2002, when he 
sold James Albert Bumbry Jr. of Roanoke a 1999 Infiniti Q-45.

Bumbry was recently sentenced to more than six and a half years in prison 
for possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and a probation violation.

While he was in jail, a freelance repossessor found the car and took 
possession of it, Kennedy said.

He said an angry Bumbry later told him he would tell law enforcement 
officers that Kennedy sold cars to drug dealers.

Bumbry, 26, was also present Feb. 12, 2002, when off-duty DEA agent Timothy 
Workman shot and killed Bumbry's friend, Keith Bailey, in the parking lot 
of a Valley View Boulevard restaurant after an altercation.

Bumbry, who has also been convicted of drug offenses in the past, is in 
custody at Roanoke City Jail, and did not return a request for comment on 
the issue.

Kennedy said he's not putting another expensive car in Roanoke to get 
picked up and impounded.

"It's a rough business, and it gets rougher all the time," Kennedy said.
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