News Roundup

Another week of playing catch up...

• Police in Marietta, Georgia have purchased some new gear with the proceeds of asset forfeiture cases. They spent $10,000 acquiring and training in the use of an explosive alternative to the battering ram. Marietta Police Chief Dan Flynn describes the product as a "heavy duty tape" that contains explosives and can be used in doors, windows, and walls. The agency also used $28,000 for two automatic license-plate readers for two of their cruisers. The cameras can scan "thousands of passing vehicle tags per minute" and have drawn the ire of privacy advocates at the ACLU.
• The federal government's $1.2 billion windfall from its case against Toyota will be dumped in the federal Asset Forfeiture Fund. Toyota was penalized for misleading customers and regulators about their vehicles troubles with unintended acceleration. The News-Gazette also notes how much the forfeiture fund's fortunes rest on large fraud cases. Half of the fund's income in 2013 was related to 10 fraud cases and half of its income in 2012 was due to the $2.2 billion received as a result of the Bernie Madoff investigation.
• The San Juan, Texas Police Department spent $2,700 in asset forfeiture revenue to purchase a bomb detecting dog. Seventy-five percent of the cost of the dog was covered by an unnamed grant provided to the department. The department received $87,401 in equitable sharing payments during fiscal year  2013.
• The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (UK) is criticizing the use of recovered assets by the West Midlands Police Department. The agency received £1.9 million in seized criminal assets, but only £300,000 was used for community projects. The rest of the money is being used to "drive up performance on asset recovery". Half of the proceeds from criminal forfeitures in the UK is held by the government while the remaining half is split between the courts, the police, and the Crown Prosecution Service. The proceeds from civil forfeitures are split evenly between the government and the police force. 
• Prosecutors in the Phillipines are still battling for control of the proceeds of the so-called pork barrel scam perpetrated by local politicians.
• Jarrett Dieterle, a former intern at the Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy, has published a history of the Lacey Act, the legislation at the heart of the Gibson Guitar Raid three years ago, in the Georgetown Law Journal. The article is available to download in .pdf format.

News Roundup

It's been awhile since my last update so this will be a big one.

• The most important news is the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision in Kaley v. United States, which has received fairly wide coverage in the media since it was issued in late February. The petitioners in the case attempted to challenge the government's pre-trial seizure of their home and a $500,000 certificate of deposit that were allegedly tied to the sale of stolen property. The Kaleys wanted to challenge the the seizure on the basis of a lack of evidence to support the underlying criminal charges, not the property's connection to the alleged criminal conduct. The Supreme Court decided against the Kaleys, ruling that they could not challenge the grand jury's finding of probable cause that was used by the government to support the seizure. I'll have more analysis on this case next week, but until then you can read coverage of the case at Slate, Reason, and Forbes.

• In addition to their coverage of the Kaley decision, Slate also ran an article about state and local law enforcement in states like Washington and Colorado taking part in the equitable sharing program despite recent changes in their jurisdiction'ss marijuana laws.

•  The US has frozen more than $458 million connected to former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. It's being heralded as the largest kleptocracy related forfeiture in history. 

• The Hudson Valley Reporter has a report on the use of forfeiture by law enforcement in Putnam County, New York. The paper reports that Putnam's asset forfeiture unit "oversaw a total of 130 forfeiture cases, most of them involving vehicles. While most defendants chose to forfeit the value of their vehicles, 17 were sold at auction, and 14 were released to lien holders after payment of administrative fees. Fifteen cases involved the forfeiture of cash proceeds of crimes."

•  The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, based in Michigan, has a posted a brief statement that summarizes their view on asset forfeiture.

• The Livingston Daily has a piece on a developing lawsuit regarding the seizure and attempted forfeiture of more than $100,000 in cash from two Michigan businesses. The businesses alleged crime? Routinely making cash deposits totalling less than less than $10,000, the amount which triggers a report to the federal government. The practice is known as "structuring", essentially purposefully depositing money in a way to avoid notice by the federal government.

• Forfeiture is being scrutinized in Nevada after two lawsuits were filed against the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff's deputies seized $50,000 in cash and two cashier's checks from one man and $13,800 in cash and a .40 caliber handgun from another. No arrests were made, no drugs were found, and no charges have been filed against the property owners.