Pubdate: Mon, 18 May 2015
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2015 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact: http://www.newsok.com/voices/guidelines
Website: http://newsok.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Nolan Clay

FORFEITURE FRAY

Senator Denies Claims That Plan to Change Law Is Grab for Money

A state senator has upset law enforcement officers across the state 
by saying the state's drug money forfeiture law needs to be changed 
to protect the innocent.

"Completely asinine," said the most vocal critic, Canadian County 
Sheriff Randall Edwards.

At issue is the law as written allows police - in some instances - to 
seize and keep cash found during traffic stops even when no drugs 
were discovered and no criminal charges were filed.

Sen. Kyle Loveless, R-Oklahoma City, calls the current law 
un-American and subject to abuse.

The senator on May 6 introduced a bill to change the law. He calls it 
the "Personal Asset Protection Act."

His plan is to push for the reform to be passed next year after a 
study of the issue between legislative sessions. His proposal would 
allow cash, cars, planes and other assets to be forfeited only after 
a conviction for a drug offense.

Opponents of civil forfeiture laws have been pushing for changes 
nationwide, bolstered by widely publicized anecdotes of questionable 
seizures or traffic stops. The Institute for Justice, a civil 
liberties group, calls the practice "policing for profit." New Mexico 
this year reformed its procedures, basically always requiring a 
conviction for asset forfeiture. "I started just researching it," 
Loveless said. "And the more I researched it, the more angry and the 
more upset I got. ... I don't want to get rid of it. What I want to 
do is put safeguards into place ... so law enforcement agencies don't 
have an incentive to take things illegally."

He also said, "There are instances all across the country - a poker 
player that wins $5,000 in cash. Well, a police officer thinks he 
looks like a gangster or whatever, pulls him over, takes the money. 
It costs him eight grand to get the five grand back. That is not the 
America that I think we want to live in."

In letters to state newspapers, Edwards accuses Loveless of 
duplicity, claiming the senator's true intent in introducing the bill 
is to use the forfeited money to help finance state operations. He 
wrote the senator is not pointing out that the forfeited funds under 
his reform bill would go into the state's general fund.

Currently, forfeited funds go back to the law enforcement agencies.

"Don't make any mistake about it, the only thing the proponents of 
this bill are fighting for is the money! Period! And they are 
disguising it as they are helping to protect the innocent!" Edwards complained.

He also predicted drug stops along Oklahoma's highways would come to 
an end if the law passes because legislators would keep all of the 
money that had been used to pay for such law enforcement efforts.

"Not a red cent would go toward fighting drug cartels!" he wrote in 
his letter. "How do I know that? Because they are not contributing a 
red cent toward fighting the war on drugs to my agency now!"

He also contended that those facing forfeiture of assets already have 
due process because a judge makes the final decision. And he 
explained how money could be seized even if no criminal charge is filed.

"When we stop someone and they have a huge amount of cash, shrink 
wrapped and hidden in containers of coffee, and the driver has drug 
trafficking convictions or multiple drug charges on his or her 
criminal record, then denies ownership or knowledge of the origin of 
the suspected contraband and then signs a non-ownership affidavit, I 
think it's a fair assumption he or she is hiding the fact it's drug 
proceeds," the sheriff wrote.

Concerns

With Interstate 40 cutting through Canadian County, traffic stops 
have proved helpful to law enforcement efforts.

In a stop in Canadian County in May 2013, a state trooper found a 
package of cocaine and $1,250,035 in cash hidden underneath the 
mattress in the sleeper of a tractor-trailer headed from Chicago to 
Los Angeles.

The Canadian County sheriff's office has been awarded almost $400,000 
in forfeited assets since July 1, 2009. Judicial decisions in pending 
forfeiture cares could give the sheriff's office $1.6 million more.

Others with concerns include Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty.

"I have some concerns about it," Citty said. "We almost totally fund 
all of our covert operations in dealing with narcotics and other 
issues with asset forfeiture funds."

Loveless said the bill could be changed to address law enforcement 
concerns. He denied it is a grab for money to solve the state's 
financial problems. "I don't think there's enough to solve our 
problems any way," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom