Missouri officials are attempting once again to overhaul state laws so that millions of dollars of cash confiscated in suspected drug crimes goes to public education. State law requires that proceeds from fines and forfeitures be spent on public education. But only $10 million of the $71 million in suspected drug money that law enforcement agencies have seized since 1999 has ended up in school coffers, according to government records. Instead, Missouri law enforcement agencies have used a strategy allowing them to keep drug money by handing it off to a federal law enforcement agency. A series of news articles in 1999 and 2000 revealed how the federal government kept a portion, 20 percent or more, and then sent the rest back to the seizing agency to be spent under federal guidelines. [continues 1268 words]
Saying it will help restore faith in police, Gov. Bob Holden on Thursday signed a bill that dramatically changes how law enforcement handles seized drug money and property in Missouri. The new law, which takes effect Aug. 28, will make it much more difficult for law enforcement agencies to keep the money they seize in drug crimes. Holden said the new law makes Missouri the "first in the nation to take this action." The bill closes a loophole in forfeiture law, he said. [continues 448 words]
Platte County Sheriff Dick Anderson wants to be able to continue seizing suspected drug money at the Kansas City airport, unfettered by a proposed state law. Anderson has given a team of lawyers the equivalent of a blank check to lobby lawmakers for an amendment that would exempt state and local police from following state forfeiture laws when working at Kansas City International Airport and Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. But some legislators fear the amendment could do much more: It could end up undermining the entire effort to reform forfeiture in Missouri, they say. So far this session, the amendment has been attached to one of two similar bills that would close a loophole in state forfeiture law. The bills, sponsored by Sen. Harry Wiggins and House Speaker Jim Kreider, would require police to follow state law whenever they seize suspected drug money. Anderson's amendment would allow officers at the two airports to follow federal forfeiture laws, which give law enforcement agencies a share of the money they seize. [continues 778 words]
Law enforcement officials are threatening to have the prison sentence of a convicted drug dealer doubled if he does not drop his forfeiture lawsuit, according to a petition filed Wednesday in Jackson County Circuit Court. Mark Wynn, 31, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in federal court to selling drugs. This year Wynn filed a lawsuit against the Kansas City Police Department that was the first class action in Missouri against police agencies that seized drug money and property. The lawsuits claim police illegally turned the money over to the federal government. [continues 619 words]
Police in Colby, Kan., invested a comfortable nest egg last year -- $2.1 million seized in a drug case. That is three times what the 10-officer department normally spends in a year. In fact, a committee has been formed just to help police decide how to spend the $120,000 in interest the money will bring each year. For Kansas law enforcement agencies located along an interstate or busy highway, the war on drugs can be lucrative. Just last week, law enforcement took more than $800,000 in two seizures on Interstate 70. [continues 1314 words]
TOPEKA -- Kansas law enforcement officials on Monday strongly opposed a reform forfeiture bill that would send money seized in drug cases to education. Currently, law enforcement agencies can keep most of the money once it is legally confiscated. Law enforcement officials told the House Judiciary Committee that if their agencies were not allowed to keep drug money, forfeitures could become extinct in Kansas. "The question becomes, why would a local law enforcement agency seize property for forfeiture, subject themselves to additional investigations, hearings, and possible civil liability when they do not receive any of the proceeds?" asked Dan Dunbar, Douglas County assistant district attorney. "The answer is, they will not." [continues 459 words]
A class-action lawsuit has been filed in Jackson County on behalf of hundreds of people whose money or property may have been taken illegally by police in drug cases. The lawsuit stems from a Clay County judge's ruling earlier this month that ordered the Kansas City Police Department to return more than $34,000 plus interest to an imprisoned drug felon, Vincent Karpierz. Kansas City police violated the law when they seized Karpierz's money and gave it to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration instead of going through state court, an appellate court has ruled. The DEA returned $21,000 to the Police Department. [continues 635 words]
John Ashcroft said in his answers Friday to Senate questions that he would be willing to work to address problems in the federal forfeiture program. But Sen. Patrick Leahy criticized Ashcroft's answers to two forfeiture questions. "I am disappointed that Senator Ashcroft chose to answer my very specific questions on this issue with nonresponsive generalities," Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement to The Kansas City Star. Leahy wrote both forfeiture questions. The first discussed the Justice Department's program of sharing forfeited drug money and property with state and local law enforcement agencies. [continues 370 words]
John Ashcroft is attracting criticism from drug war opponents who say he turned a blind eye while police were violating the Missouri Constitution at the time he was governor. A 1990 state Supreme Court ruling upheld the constitution, which said drug money that police seize must go to education, and overturned a state law that Ashcroft had signed in 1986 allowing police to keep the money. But police in Missouri, with help from the U.S. Department of Justice, continued to route the money back to their departments. [continues 540 words]
Just a year ago, federal agencies were helping local police keep millions of dollars in drug money they seized, with few questions asked. Outside of law enforcement circles, few people even knew it was happening. That has changed. Reform efforts became widespread last year, and forfeiture critics promise more this year to fix what they call a corrupting conflict of interest for law enforcement. "It has become a hot issue finally," said Brenda Grantland, a California lawyer and president of Forfeiture Endangers American Rights, a nonprofit group seeking to reform laws. "It has taken us many, many years. The momentum has changed, and it's in our favor." [continues 1672 words]
Kansas City police must refund more than $34,000 to an imprisoned drug felon because the way they took the money from him broke state law. On Friday, Clay County Circuit Judge David Russell ordered the department to pay back the money plus interest to Vincent Karpierz, who was arrested and convicted in 1998. An appellate court already had ruled that police evaded Missouri law when they gave Karpierz's cash to a federal agency instead of going through a state court. The federal agency returned most of the money to police. [continues 960 words]
Even though the U.S. Supreme Court last week outlawed roadblocks to check for drugs, the Phelps County Sheriff's Department in Rolla, Mo., apparently plans to continue checkpoints on Interstate 44. Sheriff Don Blankenship said last week in a Rolla newspaper article that he would continue the checkpoints, which have been so frequent that critics call him the "Sheriff of I-44." The ruling "shouldn't affect us because we have a different type of checkpoint" from the one the Supreme Court addressed, Blankenship was quoted as saying. [continues 695 words]
CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- The debate over the way police handle drug money they seize became a major focus of lawmakers from 16 southern states who gathered here this weekend. "This is almost as controversial as the presidential election," said Dana Dembrow, a Maryland lawmaker. Forfeiture was the subject of one of two main sessions at the four-day winter meeting of the Southern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments. In addition, several legislators said they plan to pursue reform of forfeiture laws in their states. Dembrow said he would propose that the Southern Legislative Conference ask Congress to help settle the issue. Forfeiture has become an issue nationwide this year. In articles earlier this year, The Kansas City Star found police were evading state laws across the country, including in Missouri, by handing off property and cash they seize in drug cases to a federal agency, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration. The agency keeps a cut, usually 20 percent, and returns the rest to police. Of the 16 states in the Southern Legislative Conference, including Missouri, The Star checked 14 for the series -- all except Mississippi and Virginia. In each of them, the newspaper found either cases in which police handed off seized property to a federal agency or found police who acknowledged they routinely do. Most states have laws that prevent police from unilaterally turning over seized property to a federal agency. [continues 1091 words]
In a Kansas City case expected to have a broad impact, a Missouri appeals court ruled Tuesday that local police can't turn over drug money they seize to a federal agency without a court order. The ruling is significant because police in Missouri regularly give drug money to federal agencies, which give back a portion of the money to police. State law would send the money to public education in most cases. Missouri law "does not allow a unilateral transfer by a Missouri police department to a federal agency once the police have seized the property," the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District ruled. [continues 871 words]
A federal judge said Sunday that the war on drugs discriminates against minorities, results in illegal searches and seizures and compromises police officials who benefit from money they seize. "It is absolutely destroying our inner-city communities," District Judge Scott O. Wright said. Wright was keynote speaker Sunday night at the Kansas City Jewish Community Relations Bureau/American Jewish Committee's human-relations awards banquet. Drugs are a "real cancer" in America, Wright acknowledged. But the war on drugs has failed, he said. [continues 396 words]
$82,000 Is Found In Car Bought At Federal Auction KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A 77-year-old woman -- not the federal government -- can keep $82,000 found in her car's gas tank. In a case that captured national attention, a federal judge ruled last week that Helen Chappell of Kansas City is the rightful owner of the cash, which federal agents seized last year after a mechanic found it in her 1995 Volkswagen Golf. "It's not often that a 77-year-old woman can beat one of the most powerful adversaries in the world," said Paul Katz, the attorney who sued the government for Chappell and her son to get the money back. [continues 406 words]
ROLLA, Mo. -- Some Call Him The "Sheriff Of I-44." For years Phelps County Sheriff Don Blankenship and his deputies have operated a drug checkpoint as often as twice a week and sometimes more to stop the flow of drugs along the 32 miles of Interstate 44 through the county. Now the drug checkpoints have become the main issue in Blankenship's third re-election bid, adding to a national debate about forfeitures. His critics say the department's 18 deputies do not have the time to man the checkpoints and also patrol the county's 1,100-plus miles of roads and operate the jail. In fact, the county still doesn't have the 24-hour road patrols that Blankenship promised when he was first elected 12 years ago. [continues 1233 words]
If lawmakers can't fix the forfeiture mess, then maybe voters can. At least that's the hope of activists and volunteers who have placed voter initiatives on the Nov. 7 ballots in three states to reform the way property seized in drug busts and traffic stops is confiscated. The initiatives in Utah, Oregon and Massachusetts would dramatically reduce the opportunity for law enforcement to violate the civil liberties of innocent victims of forfeiture, supporters say. The ballot measures would, in effect, require law enforcement to prove that a crime had occurred before property could be forfeited. And drug money, instead of going back to police, would be sent to a public education fund in Utah and drug treatment funds in Oregon and Massachusetts. [continues 1360 words]
If lawmakers can't fix the forfeiture mess, then maybe voters can. At least that's the hope of activists and volunteers who have placed voter initiatives on the Nov. 7 ballots in three states to reform the way property seized in drug busts and traffic stops is confiscated. The initiatives in Utah, Oregon and Massachusetts would dramatically reduce the opportunity for law enforcement to violate the civil liberties of innocent victims of forfeiture, supporters say. The ballot measures would, in effect, require law enforcement to prove that a crime had occurred before property could be forfeited. And drug money, instead of going back to police, would be sent to a public education fund in Utah and drug treatment funds in Oregon and Massachusetts. [continues 1341 words]
A legislative committee on Monday recommended changes to the Kansas forfeiture law to address problems in the way the state's law enforcement agencies handle drug money. The problems were found last month in a state audit that had been prompted by a series of stories in The Kansas City Star about forfeiture issues in Missouri, Kansas and other states. In addition to those findings, the audit reached several other conclusions. For example, it found that other states provide more protection to residents whose property is seized than does Kansas law. [continues 717 words]
