- 'A police dog scratched at your luggage, so we're confiscating
your life savings and you'll never get it back.' Police stopped 49-year-old
Ethel Hylton at Houston's Hobby Airport and told her she was under arrest
because a drug dog had scratched at her luggage. Agents searched her bags
and strip-searched her, but they found no drugs. They did find $39,110
in cash, money she had received from an insurance settlement and her life
savings; accumulated through over 20 years of work as a hotel housekeeper
and hospital janitor. Ethel Hylton completely documented where she got
the money and was never charged with a crime. But the police kept her money
anyway. Nearly four years later, she is still trying to get her money back.
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- Ethel Hylton is just one of a large and growing list
of Americans - now numbering in the hundreds of thousands - who have been
victimized by civil asset forfeiture. Under civil asset forfeiture, every-thing
you own can be legally taken away even if you are never convicted of a
crime.
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- Suspicion of offenses which, if proven in court, might
result in a $200 fine or probation, are being used to justify seizure of
tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property. Totally
innocent Americans are losing their cars, homes and businesses, based on
the claims of anonymous informants that illegal transactions took place
on their property. Once property is seized, it is virtually impossible
to get it back.
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- Property is now being seized in every state and from
every social group. Seizures include pocket money confiscated from public-housing
residents in Florida; cars taken away from men suspected of soliciting
prostitutes in Oregon; and homes taken away from ordinary, middle class
Americans whose teenage children are accused of selling a few joints of
marijuana. No person and no property is immune from seizure. You could
be the next victim. Here are some examples:
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- In Washington, D.C. police stop black men on the streets
in poor areas of the city, and "routinely confiscate small amounts
of cash and jewelry". Most confiscated property is not even recorded
by police departments. "Resident Ben Davis calls it 'robbery with
a badge'." [USA Today, 5/18/92]
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- In Iowa, "a woman accused of shoplifting a $25 sweater
had her $18,000 car - specially equipped for her handicapped daughter -
seized as the 'getaway vehicle'." [USA Today, 5/18/92]
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- Detroit drug police raided a grocery store, but failed
to find any drugs. After drug dogs reacted to three $1.00 bills in the
cash register, the police seized $4,384 from cash registers and the store
safe. According to the Pittsburgh Press, over 92% of all cash in circulation
in the U.S. now shows some drug residue.
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- In Monmouth, New Jersey, Dr. David Disbrow was accused
of practicing psychiatry without a license. His crime was providing counselling
services from a spare bedroom in his mother's house. Counselling does not
require a license in New Jersey. That didn't stop police from seizing virtually
everything of value from his mother's home, totalling over $60,000. The
forfeiture squad confiscated furniture, carpets, paintings, and even personal
photographs.
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- Kathy and Mark Schrama were arrested just before Christmas
1990 at their home in New Jersey. Kathy was charged with taking $500 worth
of UPS packages from neighbors' porches. Mark was charged with receiving
stolen goods. If found guilty, they might have paid a small fine and received
probation. The day after their arrest, their house, cars and furniture
were seized. Based upon mere accusation, $150,000 in property was confiscated,
without trial or indictment. Police even took their clothing, eyeglasses,
and Christmas presents for their 10-year-old son. The incentive for government
agencies to expand forfeiture is enormous. Agencies can easily seize prop-erty
and they usually keep what they take. According to the Pittsburgh Press,
80% of seizure victims are never even charged with a crime. Law enforcement
agencies often keep the best seized cars, watches and TVs for their "departments",
and sell the rest.
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- How extensive are seizures in America today? The Washington
Post has reported that the U.S. Marshals Service alone had an inventory
of over $1.4 billion in seized assets, including over 30,000 cars, boats,
homes and businesses. Federal and state agencies seizing property now include
the FBI, the DEA, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Coast Guard, the IRS,
local police, highway patrol, the Department of Housing and Urban Development,
FDA, and the Bureau of Land Management. Asset forfeiture is a growth industry.
Seizures have increased from $27 million in 1986, to over $644 million
in 1991 to over $2 billion today.
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- Civil asset forfeiture defines a new standard of justice
in America; or more precisely, a new standard of injustice. Under civil
seizure, property, not an individual is charged with an offense. Even if
you are a totally innocent owner, the government can still confiscate your
''guilty'' property.
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- If government agents seize your property under civil
asset forfeiture, you can forget about being innocent until proven guilty,
due process of law, the right to an attorney, or even the right to trial.
All of those rights only exist if you are charged with a criminal offense;
that is, with an offense which could result in your imprisonment. If you
(or your property) are accused of a civil offense (offenses which could
not result in your imprisonment), the Supreme Count has ruled that you
have no presumption of innocence, no right to an attorney, and no protection
from double jeopardy.
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- Seizure occurs when government takes away your property.
Forfeiture is when legal title is permanently transferred to the state.
To get seized property returned, you have to fight the full resources of
your state or federal government; sometimes both! You have to prove your
property's "innocence" by documenting how you earned every cent
used to pay for it. You have to prove that neither you nor any ofyour family
members ever committed an illegal act involving the property.
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- To get a trial, you have to post a non-refundable "bond"
of 10% of the value of your property. You have to pay attorney fees - ranging
from $5,000 to over $100,000 - out of your own pocket. Money you pay your
attorney is also subject to seizure (either before or after the trial)
if the government alleges that those funds were "tainted". And
you may be forced to go through trial after trial, because under civil
seizure the Constitutional protection against "double jeopardy"
doesn't apply. Once your property is seized, expect to spend years fighting
government agencies and expect to be impoverished by legal fees - with
no guarantee of winning - while the government keeps your car, home and
bank account.
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- In fact, in a recent Supreme Court decision (Bennis v.
Michigan), the Court said explicitly that innocent owners can be deprived
of their property if it's used to facilitate a crime, even without the
owner's knowledge or consent. That means you can now lose your home or
business because of the action of employees, relatives, or guests, over
whom you have absolutely no control.
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- Police and prosecutors have incentive to confiscate as
much as possible.
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- Not only do police and prosecutors have the power to
seize anything you own on the slightest pretext, they also have the incentive.
The dirty little secret of the forfeiture racket is that police, prosecutors
and judges can benefit personally by stealing your property.
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- Brenda Grantland - America's leading asset forfeiture
defense attorney - gives these examples of government greed in her book
Your House Is Under Arrest:
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- Suffolk County, NY. District Attorney James M. Catterton
drives around in a BMW 735I that was seized from an alleged drug dealer.
He spent $3,412 from the forfeiture fund for mechanical and body work,
including $75 for pin-striping.
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- Warren County, NJ. The assistant chief prosecutor drives
a confiscated yellow Corvette.
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- Little Compton, RI. The seven member police force received
$3.8 million from the federal forfeiture fund, and spent it on such things
as a new 23-foot boat with trailer, and new Pontiac Firebirds. But that's
just the tip of the iceberg. The head of one Los Angeles police forfeiture
squad claims his group personally pocketed over $60 million in seized property.
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- Why do our courts tolerate these outrageous legalized
thefts? Because they get their cut. It's completely legal for confiscated
property to be used by police, prosecutors and judges, so long as it's
for official business. In 1996, a federal district court even ruled that
police can personally receive 25% of the value of any confiscated home,
car, or business.
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- Some police will kill you for your property
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- In Malibu, California, park police tried repeatedly to
buy the home and land of 61-year-old, retired rancher Don Scott, which
was next to national parkland. Scott refused. On the morning of October
2, 1992, a task force of 26 LA county sheriffs, DEA agents and other cops
broke into Scott's living room. When he heard his wife, Frances, scream,
he came out of his upstairs bedroom with a gun over his head. Police yelled
at him to lower his gun. He did, and they shot him dead.
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- Police claimed to be searching for marijuana which they
never found. Ventura County DA Michael Bradbury concluded that the raid
was "motivated at least in part, by a desire to seize and forfeit
the ranch for the government . . . [The] search warrant became Donald Scott's
death warrant."
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- _____
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- Jarret B. Wollstein works as an independent writer and
direct-mail marketing specialist. He is a founder and director of the International
Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL), an international human-rights and
free-market networking organization with members in over eighty countries.
His ISIL issue papers have sold over two million copies and have been translated
into six languages.
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- Mr. Wollstein is the author of 300 articles and audio-tapes
and four books, including Society Without Coercion (1969) and The Rage
of lslam (1992). He is currently completing his fifth book-The Clinton
Health Care Disaster. He is also a former editor of the Individualist magazine
and the Financial Privacy Report.
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- Mr. Wollstein's essay appeared as a two-part series in
the January and February 1994 issues of Freedom Daily, published by The
Future of Freedom Foundation - For more information on Forfeiture in the
USA, view the Forfeiture Endangers American Rights (FEAR) website: http://www.fear.org
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