Asset Forfeiture

Several years ago, I read a novel by John Maxxim in which the bad guys, all federal agents, financed their foul deeds and their lifestyle by misuse of forfeiture laws.  I thought it was possible, but unlikely, that any such abuse of power could actually take place.  A recent story in the Houston Chronicle shows it actually does happen:

A U.S. District Court judge this month issued a stunning rebuke to Homeland Security agents in Houston. According to the opinion by Judge Lynn Hughes, the agents manipulated the confusion of an innocent family so they could wrongfully take "all their money" - more than $35,000 - in order to "earn credit with their agency" and supervisors. The judge ordered the money returned to the family, concluding that federal officials "played agency games, abused the people they are to serve, and violated their oaths to support the Constitution."

How were the agents able to take this money in the first place? Through a process called civil asset forfeiture, where law enforcement agencies can take and sell property without so much as charging the owner with a crime - and then profit from the proceeds. And the problem isn't limited to federal officials; Texas has some of the worst civil forfeiture laws in the entire country.

A landmark study on civil asset forfeiture laws by the Institute for Justice, the libertarian public interest law firm, shows that civil forfeiture laws are dangerously stacked against innocent property owners and offer perverse financial incentives for law enforcement agencies to police for profit rather than justice and public safety.

Civil asset forfeiture laws turn the American ideal of innocent until proven guilty on its head. Law enforcement officials can take cash and property suspected of being used in a crime - even from innocent property owners never convicted or even charged with a crime. Once taken, innocent owners bear the expensive burden of mounting a lawsuit against the government to prove their innocence in order to get their property back. And the government agencies that seize the money get to keep most of it - giving them a direct financial incentive to take more and abuse the rules.

Consider the facts of the case decided in Houston. Kyle and Berekti Jones were headed to Ethiopia with their infant daughter to visit Berekti Jones' homeland and family for a two-month stay. The Ethiopian economy runs largely on cash, so they brought all they would need - approximately $35,000.

However, it is illegal to carry more than $10,000 in cash overseas without informing authorities in the United States. So when they arrived at the airport they told Homeland Security officers they had a lot of cash and cooperated with officers searching their baggage. When one officer asked how much, Jones said he wasn't sure but would "guess" it was about $20,000. The officer wrote it down on the form and insisted Jones sign it immediately, which he did.

The family was moved to another room, detained and searched further, causing them to miss their flight. A little more than $15,000 in cash was found, along with another $20,000, not in cash but travelers' checks, spread out among their pieces of luggage. The family hid none of this. They cooperated fully, pointing out where the money was located. But the officers used Jones' admitted guess to accuse the family of a deliberate failure to report, and the officers demanded the entire amount be forfeited.

Getting their money back took an expensive federal lawsuit - the family has requested reimbursement of $37,000 in attorney fees and costs. The government would not return the stolen property until forced to by Judge Hughes.

Unfortunately, this an not an isolated incident. Next month, the Institute for Justice will appear in court on behalf of a small-business owner from Houston whose pickup truck was seized by Harris County officers, even though the man did nothing wrong and was never accused of any crime. He has been trying for the past three years to get his property back.

In fact, forfeiture abuses have exploded all across the country. Last year alone federal agencies seized approximately $1.6 billion in assets.