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Asset
Forfeiture runs rampant against citizens
Following are several stories of individuals who have
lost their property under the Asset Forfeiture Civil Law
Governments Seizes Ranch of
Property Owners Wrongly Accused of Criminal Activity
In September 1988, the federal government seized a
4,346-acre ranch owned by the Jones family in Glades County,
Florida for allegedly allowing their property to be used as an
aircraft-landing site by cocaine smugglers. The Joneses were
innocent of any wrongdoing but were still deprived of the use
of their land for six years.
The controversy started when a twin-engine plane crashed in
early 1986 on land a quarter of a mile from the Jones ranch.
The plane's occupants were killed and no drugs were found in
the wreckage. But law enforcement authorities believed the
plane was heading to the Jones ranch and seized their property
even though neither member of the Jones family or the Joneses'
employees were charged with a crime. Under current civil
forfeiture laws, the federal government can seize the assets
of suspects without a hearing, a trial or even an arrest. The
government can often keep the assets of suspects even after
they are found innocent or their cases are dropped without an
arrest.
Because the government would not return the ranch, the
Jones family went to court but it took five years before their
case finally went to trial. In May 1994, U.S. District Judge
William Hoeveler found for the Joneses, ruling that
"fundamental rights of ownership and the loss of those
rights" were at the core of this case.
"In the understandable zeal to enforce the criminal
laws constant vigilance must be exercised to protect the
rights of all - especially those who may be caught up in a net
loosely thrown around those who are guilty," noted Judge
Hoeveler. He ruled, [It was] "questionable whether this
forfeiture action ever really had a valid basis."
While the Joneses were awarded attorneys fees and costs,
they were not compensated for the considerable damage to their
property. For the six years the government held the ranch, the
Joneses were prevented from maintaining the property. Current
law does not allow the Joneses to sue the government for
damage to their land.
Source: Office of U.S. Rep. Charles Canady
Federal
Marshals Unjustly Seize $300,000 Home from Rightful Owners
In June 1990, Susan Davis, a certified public accountant in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was named the personal
representative for the estate of George Gerhardt who had died
of cancer that year. That estate included a $300,000 home.
In September, Gerhardt's heir called Davis to inform her
that U.S. Federal Marshals had seized the house. An amazed
Davis asked officials the reason for the seizure and was told
that a "confidential informant" who was in prison
claimed that George Gerhardt told him that in 1988 drug
dealers paid Gerhardt $10,000 to unload drugs on his property.
It took nearly three years before the case went to court.
During this time, the government kept control of the property
and rented it. Leading up to the trial, the government refused
reasonable requests to provide basic information it claimed
justified the seizure until the court threatened sanctions for
withholding information. When the case finally went to trial,
it only took one day for U.S. District Judge James Paine to
rule against the government's seizure. Apparently, an
acquaintance of Gerhardt used his property to smuggle drugs
when Gerhardt was out of the country on vacation. Every
witness listed by the government stated that Gerhardt had no
knowledge of the incident.
Davis said the legal fight to return the Gerhardt house to
its rightful owner ended up costing more than $40,000. But
that still wasn't the end of the matter. The person to whom
the government rented the house refused to leave. Davis and
the Gerhardt heir had to hire yet another attorney to evict
the recalcitrant tenant.
"It does not seem right to me that the government
should have the right to confiscate an innocent person's
property based on nothing more than the hearsay claim of some
unnamed person in prison on criminal charges," says
Davis.
Source: Testimony of Susan Davis before U.S. House of
Representatives Judiciary Committee, June 11, 1997
Innocent Man
Loses Business and Home for Unknowingly Transporting Drug
Trafficker
For 13 years, Billy Munnerlynn and his wife operated an air
charter service in Las Vegas, Nevada. The couple had never
committed any crime in their lives. Indeed, they were both
recognized for performing extensive charity work in the Las
Vegas area using their planes to assist charity groups on
various missions.
Then one day Munnerlynn unknowingly transported a convicted
cocaine dealer transporting a large sum of cash. Even though
Munnerlynn knew nothing about his client's illegal activities
and was never charged with a crime, the federal government
seized his $500,000 jet, closing his once thriving business.
During the years he operated his charter service,
Munnerlynn flew a wide variety of clients, including movie
stars, gamblers from foreign countries and even U.S. Marshals
transporting terrorists to prison. So there was nothing
unusual when a client named Albert Wright chartered a
seemingly routine flight from Little Rock, Arkansas to
Ontario, California. But soon after the plane arrived in
California, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents
arrested Munnerlynn and his passenger, who was carrying $2.7
million in his luggage. It turns out that the DEA had been
pursuing Wright for several weeks because he was a narcotics
trafficker. Although he knew nothing about Wright's criminal
activities, Munnerlynn was charged with violating the RICO law
and thrown in jail for more than seven hours.
The criminal charges against Munnerlynn were eventually
dropped but he still had to file a civil lawsuit to force the
government to return his Lear jet. After a two-and-a-half year
legal battle, which cost Munnerlynn most of his life savings,
the government returned the jet - but in such a state of
disrepair that it would require $140,000 to fix.
But that wasn't the end of his problems. The DEA had put
Munnerlynn on a list of possible drug runners and money
launderers which prevented him from finding supplemental work
flying for air transport companies. He was forced to file
bankruptcy and lost both his business and his home. He is now
working as truck driver to earn a living.
Source: Office of Rep. Henry Hyde
African-American
Businessman Nearly Loses Business for Paying for Airline
Ticket in Cash
Willie Jones, the African-American owner of a Nashville
landscaping business, thought he was making a routine purchase
when he bought an airline ticket at the Nashville airport on
February 27, 1991. Little did he know this purchase would lead
to a two-year legal nightmare with the federal government that
nearly cost him his business.
Jones paid cash for the ticket to Houston, where he planned
to purchase plants and shrubbery for his business. But by
paying in cash, Jones immediately aroused suspicions that he
was a drug dealer. Carrying large amounts of cash and being an
African-American apparently fits the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency's (DEA) profile of such a criminal.
The ticket agent alerted the Nashville police who detained
Jones and proceeded to search his luggage. The search yielded
no drugs but police were suspicious of the $9,600 he had in
his wallet. Jones insisted that the money was for buying
plants for his business. But after a sniffing police dog
detected trace amounts of drugs on the cash, the police seized
Jones's money.
The seizure nearly drove Jones out of business. Although he
was never charged with a crime, the DEA would not return his
money unless he posted a $960 bond which he could not afford.
Jones sued the DEA for discrimination based on race. In April
1993, a federal judge ordered the government to return Jones's
$9,600, ruling that trace amounts of drugs on currency is so
common that it can hardly be used as an excuse to seize
someone's money. It turns out that 97% of all U.S. currency
has a chemical condition that could falsely indicate a trace
amount of drugs.
Source: Statement of Rep. Henry Hyde before the U.S. House
of Representatives Judiciary Committee, July 22, 1996
Federal Agents
Destroy Innocent Man's Boat in Drug Search
On April 9, 1989, U.S. Customs Services agents boarded a
sailboat purchased by Craig Klein, a university professor in
Jacksonville, Florida. Their objective was to conduct a search
for illegal drugs. Federal agents wielding axes, power drills
and crowbars nearly destroyed Klein's $24,000 boat in a
fruitless attempt to find drugs. They dismantled the engine,
ruptured the fuel tank, and drilled more than 30 holes in the
hull - half below the waterline.
Although innocent of any wrongdoing, the Customs Services
refused to compensate Klein for wrecking his new boat and he
was forced to sell it for scrap. It was only after the
incident came to the attention of some U.S. Congressmen that
the Customs Service finally felt compelled to pay Klein $9,100
- still only one-third of the boat's total value.
Source: Statement of Rep. Henry Hyde before U.S. House of
Representatives Judiciary Committee, July 22, 1996
Act of
Kindness Results in Criminal Charges, Loss of Savings
Dr. Richard Lowe is a 72-year-old family physician in the
small Alabama town of Haleyville. He is a highly-regarded
member of the community who provides free medical services to
the poor and charges his paying customers only $5 for a
routine office visit. He even donated nearly a million dollars
to a local private school to keep it from closing when it
experienced financial difficulties.
It was this act of charity that led federal prosecutors to
seize Lowe's entire life savings of $2.5 million. The reason?
Government officials mistakenly believed that he was engaged
in a criminal effort to hide ill-gotten gains from the
government.
Lowe's story began in 1988 when he and his friend, Joseph
Lett, president of First Bank in nearby Roanoke, established
the Chambers County Educational Fund (CCEF). Lowe deposited
his life savings of $2.5 million in the CCEF account and
directed that all the interest go to the Chambers Academy, a
private kindergarten through twelfth grade school that was on
the verge of bankruptcy. The interest plus another $456,000
contribution from Lowe, totaling more than $908,000, enabled
the school to retire its debt and keep its doors open.
In late 1990, Lowe decided to deposit more than $315,000 in
the CCEF account. Lett then went to several area banks
purchasing cashier checks with Lowe's money and crediting the
checks to the CCEF account.
Some banks thought Lett's transactions were unusual and
reported it to federal authorities. The FBI and the U.S.
attorney claimed that the bank and Lowe were attempting to
"structure" the deposits in such a way to avoid
financial reporting requirements mandated by the government.
In June 1991, the government seized not only the $315,000
deposited but also Lowe's entire CCEF account of $2.5 million.
A few months later, Lett and his son were indicted for failing
to follow currency-reporting laws. Lowe was indicted on the
same charge two years later.
But Lowe's lawyer discovered that there was nothing illegal
in Lett's financial transaction, which were simply aimed at
transferring money into the education charity fund. In 1994,
the government dismissed the case against Lowe. Even though
Lowe was exonerated of any wrongdoing, he had to fight the
government for another two years just to get his money back.
While the story did end in a victory, the five-year
struggle caused so much anguish for the doctor that at one
point he had to be hospitalized for stress.
Source: Testimony of E.E. Edwards before the U.S. House of
Representatives Judiciary Committee, June 11, 1997
from http://www.nationalcenter.org/VictimDirectory00.html#P
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