This Week’s Outrage (Which, Again, Touches on Civil Asset Forfeiture)
Last week, the Birmingham News published a scorching expose of police practices in the little town of Brookside, Alabama (population 1,253). Brookside has no traffic lights and one retail business—a Dollar General store. Over the last few years, business in this little town just north of Birmingham has been booming—if you count revenue from traffic […]
This Week’s Civil Forfeiture Outrages (Ninth in a Series: Texas Edition)
There is a big difference between being accused of misconduct and a court finding of misconduct. Nonetheless, the recent accusations leveled against Nathan Johnson, the sheriff of Real County in south Texas, are jaw-dropping. According to investigators, Sheriff Johnson’s deputies have regularly been confiscating money from undocumented immigrants during traffic stops—even when those immigrants have […]
This Week’s Civil Forfeiture Outrage (Eighth in a Series)
I wish it were harder to find forfeiture outrages to write about, but they keep popping up. This week, I focus on Massachusetts. Here’s a news story out of Holyoke, Massachusetts, that features Natasha Custodio, a victim of civil asset seizure. Her troubles began when she bailed out an acquaintance in criminal jeopardy, Arthur Estabrook, […]
This Week’s Civil Forfeiture Outrage (Fourth in a Series)
Here’s a fascinating story in the Arizona Republic about an appeals court hearing earlier this week. Reporter Perry Vandell’s account of that hearing isn’t so much informative as educational. His article provides several excellent lessons about the real world of civil forfeiture—in particular, the interactions of abstract legal principles on real people’s lives. Before Vandell’s […]
The Fruits of Forfeiture in Little Compton
The Providence Journal’s Antonia Noori Farzan just published a great story (paywalled) about the Rhode Island town of Little Compton—the second-smallest town in the nation’s smallest state—and its receipt and use of civil forfeiture assets. The story begins in the 1980s, when a Little Compton patrol officer, Ron Coffey, stopped a driver for a minor […]
This Week in Civil Forfeiture Outrages
Not for the first time, I came across so many accounts of civil forfeiture outrages this week that I couldn’t narrow them down to just one or two. Here are three: 1. WBUR, Boston’s National Public Radio station, recently produced an excellent overview of the civil forfeiture system in Massachusetts. The story begins with an […]
How Civil Forfeiture Can Enable Public Officials’ Misuse of Funds
A fascinating story at Reason last week—about the misuse of money confiscated through civil forfeiture—illuminates the many kinds of corruption that the practice of forfeiture invites. The story breaks down a report from state auditors that shows how public officials in Georgia illegally spent millions of dollars. Civil forfeiture is the ultimate result of a […]
People Have Few Protections Against Law Enforcement Civil Asset Forfeiture Practices
Imagine a world where police officers regularly confiscate property from civilians, based only on officers’ accusations of criminal conduct. Imagine that these allegations are never examined by a judge and that charges of criminal conduct are often never even filed. Unfortunately, you don’t have to imagine anything, because that is the world we live in. […]
Arizona Adopts Landmark Civil Forfeiture Reform Legislation
On May 6, Arizona Governor Greg Ducey signed into law House Bill 2810, which reforms the state’s civil forfeiture law and strengthens due process and property rights protections. Support for the legislation in both houses was bipartisan and near-unanimous. It passed the House on February 24 on a 57-2-1 vote and the Senate by 29-1 […]
Guy describes the living nightmare of the US government trying to seize his family’s motel
US senators held a hearing this week to talk about reforming a bizarre law that lets authorities seize your property even if you’ve never been charged with a crime. They heard from a man who knows about this “living nightmare” firsthand. Russ Caswell, a former motel owner who is in his 70s, told the US […]
This Week’s Civil Forfeiture Outrages: Do People Facing Forfeiture Get Due Process?
A high-profile reversal of a recent civil forfeiture case makes me wonder: Do those who face civil forfeiture generally receive due process of law? That is, are those who face forfeiture being treated fairly? Some recent evidence provides grounds for skepticism. The case in question involves Jerry Johnson, from whom police seized $39,500 in cash […]
Report: Government Seizes Billions in Private Property, but Citizens Have Little Recourse
Every year, federal, state, and local government agents take and permanently keep, collectively, billions of dollars of Americans’ property through a practice called civil forfeiture, which allows police officers to seize property (including cash) based on law enforcement believing there is probable cause the property is related to crime. Prosecutors then can shift the ownership […]
Countering Civil Forfeiture Myths with Facts
Every year, federal, state, and local government agents take—and permanently keep—billions of dollars of Americans’ property through civil forfeiture. The practice of civil forfeiture creates significant benefits for interest groups within government, such as policy makers, police officers, and prosecutors. Forfeiture reduces the taxes that policy makers would otherwise have to levy and captures funds […]
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