The asset forfeiture laws needed to be amended years ago. If you find no evidence that could be introduced in a court of law on a stop, you shouldn't be allowed to seize assets.
Policing for Profit: Oklahoma DA halts I-40 drug stops after criticism from judge
- Thread starter vvvvvvv
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Rick, most of the asset forfeiture that goes on in this state is directly linked to the drug war. Sure, some gets seized in illegal gambling operations or in money laundering, etc. so of course different policies concerning the drug war might be talked about, (legalization, etc.) but this thread is still about asset forfeiture and "for-profit" law enforcement when dealing with those contractors. I can't remember who said the bit about charging a "flat fee" upfront for that service but that would certainly help curb some temptation to "cook the books" so to speak.
A timely article on the subject:
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/judge-orders-1-million-returned-exotic-dancer-151044009.html
The bolded part is where the trouble started. Never consent to a search, even (and particularly) if you have nothing to hide. Once the police could establish no drug connection, why didn't they voluntarily return the money? Why did it take a judge's orders to get it back? They paid $74,000 to "hold" that money without cause. Regardless of what the government thinks these days, it's still not a crime to posses large amounts of cash. I hope it didn't cost her much to fight for the return of her lawful property.
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/judge-orders-1-million-returned-exotic-dancer-151044009.html
The bolded part is where the trouble started. Never consent to a search, even (and particularly) if you have nothing to hide. Once the police could establish no drug connection, why didn't they voluntarily return the money? Why did it take a judge's orders to get it back? They paid $74,000 to "hold" that money without cause. Regardless of what the government thinks these days, it's still not a crime to posses large amounts of cash. I hope it didn't cost her much to fight for the return of her lawful property.
During the Nixon era, for the only time in the history of the war on drugs, the majority of funding goes towards treatment, rather than law enforcement.
source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/
The House I Live In
source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/
The House I Live In
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A timely article on the subject:
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/judge-orders-1-million-returned-exotic-dancer-151044009.html
The bolded part is where the trouble started. Never consent to a search, even (and particularly) if you have nothing to hide. Once the police could establish no drug connection, why didn't they voluntarily return the money? Why did it take a judge's orders to get it back? They paid $74,000 to "hold" that money without cause. Regardless of what the government thinks these days, it's still not a crime to posses large amounts of cash. I hope it didn't cost her much to fight for the return of her lawful property.
Apparently, the "penalty" for highway robbery of $1M is only $74,000.
My grandpa carried his life savings with him wherever he went, in cash because he didnt trust banks. I'm sure glad he didnt get stopped and his money confiscated because some cop thought it was drug money.
Ultimately, one of the main problems is offering a percentage of the take to the contractors. It motivates them to produce results, which is a good thing in general, BUT it motivates the contractors to use whatever means available to make successful drug/ money seizures. Whether by sheer volume of traffic stops, surveillance on roads or gas stations, intimidation of the vehicle occupants or whatever.
To insure impartiality, they should have had a flat rate fee arrangement AND taken defensible measures to ensure that their actions were honest, legal and in the best public interest.
Seems like "probable cause" has been stretched a little bit.
And remember, this is Caddo County. Weird stuff goes on there.
To insure impartiality, they should have had a flat rate fee arrangement AND taken defensible measures to ensure that their actions were honest, legal and in the best public interest.
Seems like "probable cause" has been stretched a little bit.
And remember, this is Caddo County. Weird stuff goes on there.
Looks the light and heat of public scrutiny has prompted some results, temporarily
Prosecutors return $21,227 more to Interstate 40 travelers
HINTON - A district attorney is returning funds in three more cases where his drug task force took money from travelers on Interstate 40.
Two of the three cases involved stops where money was seized, but no one was arrested. A total of $21,227 is being returned in the three cases.
“I was really, really very scared,” said Julius S. Crooks, 28, who is getting back $7,500 and a semi-automatic rifle.
He was stopped in January on the way home to California from visiting family in Alabama. He was not arrested.
District Attorney Jason Hicks agreed Thursday to return the funds in the three cases, dropping efforts to have the money forfeited to law enforcement use. He had alleged cash found in the stops was drug money.
Prosecutors earlier dropped criminal cases arising from other drug stops. They also returned nearly $17,000 and a vehicle seized in those stops.
Hicks is under fire for hiring a private company, Desert Snow LLC, to assist in his drug interdiction effort.
After hiring the Guthrie company in January, his task force seized more than $1 million in the stops, mostly along a 21-mile stretch of I-40 in Caddo County. Hicks agreed to pay the company 25 percent of all forfeited proceeds from stops involving its trainers.
Critics said the arrangement led to instances where money was seized from cars for trumped-up reasons.
“The Constitution was suspended in Caddo County,” said Oklahoma City attorney Mark Myles, who represented Crooks.
Hicks halted his drug interdiction effort immediately after a judge became upset with it July 2.
“I'm shocked,” the judge said after learning Desert Snow's owner pulled over a pregnant woman and questioned her, even though he is not a state-certified law enforcement officer.
‘I believe I have done everything right'
Hicks is the district attorney in Caddo, Grady, Jefferson and Stephens counties. “I believe I have done everything right,” he told The Oklahoman July 18.
Hicks declined Friday to explain why he is returning money in the three latest cases.
“I've taken the position that I'm not going to comment on anything else until … we've had the opportunity to review everything,” Hicks said.
Hicks said he does not plan to return nearly $850,000 seized in one stop in May. No one was arrested in that stop.
“I hope that people don't have the impression that the guys from Desert Snow were up on the highway running around by themselves, because they weren't,” he said.
He said an investigator from his task force “was right there with them the entire time.”
About the stop
The first traffic stop that led to money being seized was the one involving Crooks.
The Oklahoma attorney general's office is investigating Crooks' claim that the task force seized $7,900 from him. Crooks on Friday provided The Oklahoman a photo of a receipt showing $7,900 in $20 bills was taken.
Prosecutors reported the task force took $7,500.
Under review in the attorney general's investigation is whether someone stole $400 after the stop or whether the money was miscounted.
Crooks said he, a cousin and a friend were traveling in a new rental car, with a paper plate, when they were pulled over in Oklahoma, twice within five minutes.
Participating in the second stop was a Desert Snow employee named Jason Henderson. Crooks said an officer Henderson was the one who questioned them.
“He was like, ‘You all are riding down one of the most notorious drug highways … with no plates … So do you have … in the car large amounts of U.S. currency?' I told them, ‘Yes, I have money.' … As soon as they learned I had money, they were so persistent in checking our vehicle,” Crooks recalled. “You should have seen how their eyes lit up.”
Crooks, a security guard, said an uncle loaned him the money to buy a car. He said he bought the rifle on impulse while shopping with his father, a hunter. He said both the money and the rifle, which was disassembled, were in a bag in the back of the car.
“They tore our whole car up. … They just like violated all our stuff. They stepped on our food, poured out our drinks, everything. It was just like very rude,” Crooks said. “It was just crazy, like we were real live drug dealers. And I've never been in trouble with any of that.”
Prosecutors alleged traces of marijuana were in the bag with the money. Crooks disputes that, saying he would have been put in jail if drugs were found.
Crooks said he tried to ask questions about why the money was taken. He said the district attorney's chief investigator, Lewis Garrison, “got mad … put his finger in my face and said, ‘You better get the hell off my freeway and right now!'”
He said he went to the Caddo County courthouse to try to get his money back the next morning and got in another confrontation with Garrison.
Prosecutors return $21,227 more to Interstate 40 travelers
HINTON - A district attorney is returning funds in three more cases where his drug task force took money from travelers on Interstate 40.
Two of the three cases involved stops where money was seized, but no one was arrested. A total of $21,227 is being returned in the three cases.
“I was really, really very scared,” said Julius S. Crooks, 28, who is getting back $7,500 and a semi-automatic rifle.
He was stopped in January on the way home to California from visiting family in Alabama. He was not arrested.
District Attorney Jason Hicks agreed Thursday to return the funds in the three cases, dropping efforts to have the money forfeited to law enforcement use. He had alleged cash found in the stops was drug money.
Prosecutors earlier dropped criminal cases arising from other drug stops. They also returned nearly $17,000 and a vehicle seized in those stops.
Hicks is under fire for hiring a private company, Desert Snow LLC, to assist in his drug interdiction effort.
After hiring the Guthrie company in January, his task force seized more than $1 million in the stops, mostly along a 21-mile stretch of I-40 in Caddo County. Hicks agreed to pay the company 25 percent of all forfeited proceeds from stops involving its trainers.
Critics said the arrangement led to instances where money was seized from cars for trumped-up reasons.
“The Constitution was suspended in Caddo County,” said Oklahoma City attorney Mark Myles, who represented Crooks.
Hicks halted his drug interdiction effort immediately after a judge became upset with it July 2.
“I'm shocked,” the judge said after learning Desert Snow's owner pulled over a pregnant woman and questioned her, even though he is not a state-certified law enforcement officer.
‘I believe I have done everything right'
Hicks is the district attorney in Caddo, Grady, Jefferson and Stephens counties. “I believe I have done everything right,” he told The Oklahoman July 18.
Hicks declined Friday to explain why he is returning money in the three latest cases.
“I've taken the position that I'm not going to comment on anything else until … we've had the opportunity to review everything,” Hicks said.
Hicks said he does not plan to return nearly $850,000 seized in one stop in May. No one was arrested in that stop.
“I hope that people don't have the impression that the guys from Desert Snow were up on the highway running around by themselves, because they weren't,” he said.
He said an investigator from his task force “was right there with them the entire time.”
About the stop
The first traffic stop that led to money being seized was the one involving Crooks.
The Oklahoma attorney general's office is investigating Crooks' claim that the task force seized $7,900 from him. Crooks on Friday provided The Oklahoman a photo of a receipt showing $7,900 in $20 bills was taken.
Prosecutors reported the task force took $7,500.
Under review in the attorney general's investigation is whether someone stole $400 after the stop or whether the money was miscounted.
Crooks said he, a cousin and a friend were traveling in a new rental car, with a paper plate, when they were pulled over in Oklahoma, twice within five minutes.
Participating in the second stop was a Desert Snow employee named Jason Henderson. Crooks said an officer Henderson was the one who questioned them.
“He was like, ‘You all are riding down one of the most notorious drug highways … with no plates … So do you have … in the car large amounts of U.S. currency?' I told them, ‘Yes, I have money.' … As soon as they learned I had money, they were so persistent in checking our vehicle,” Crooks recalled. “You should have seen how their eyes lit up.”
Crooks, a security guard, said an uncle loaned him the money to buy a car. He said he bought the rifle on impulse while shopping with his father, a hunter. He said both the money and the rifle, which was disassembled, were in a bag in the back of the car.
“They tore our whole car up. … They just like violated all our stuff. They stepped on our food, poured out our drinks, everything. It was just like very rude,” Crooks said. “It was just crazy, like we were real live drug dealers. And I've never been in trouble with any of that.”
Prosecutors alleged traces of marijuana were in the bag with the money. Crooks disputes that, saying he would have been put in jail if drugs were found.
Crooks said he tried to ask questions about why the money was taken. He said the district attorney's chief investigator, Lewis Garrison, “got mad … put his finger in my face and said, ‘You better get the hell off my freeway and right now!'”
He said he went to the Caddo County courthouse to try to get his money back the next morning and got in another confrontation with Garrison.
What happens to Desert Snow 25% cut when money is returned?
What happens to Desert Snow 25% cut when money is returned?
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