Without even needing to charge someone with a crime, law enforcement can seize and keep cash, cars and even homes, by exercising civil forfeiture. Now the Institute for Justice has uncovered recordings of government officials from across the country making unsettling comments about this controversial power
...Speaking at a forfeiture conference on September 10, 2014, Pete Connelly, City Attorney for Las Cruces, New Mexico, detailed his plan that would let police take the homes of people caught with tiny amounts of marijuana, even in states where the plant is legal: “I got to thinking this morning, in the paper that everybody is running around liberalizing marijuana or thinking about it. Putting it on the ballot. Taking it off the ballot. And I thought, boy, what a trap. You liberalize marijuana so somebody can sell it, they sell the marijuana out of the house, then you seize the house, which is like 10 bucks of marijuana and you [the police] get a $300,000 house. What a deal. That’s really exciting. They get what they want, and you get what you want. And the title of that article in the [Wall Street] Journal was ‘What’s Yours Is Theirs.’ I want to turn it around as ‘What’s Theirs is Yours.’”
...During one of his presentations, Connelly offered tips on how to write an effective forfeiture complaint (i.e. the legal papers the government files). If done well, “the complaint is, what I call, a masterpiece of deception,” filled with statements that are “very hard to deny.”
...If civil forfeiture truly targeted drug kingpins, then police would regularly seize all kinds of high-end, flashy cars. But according to Connelly, “we’re not dealing with the Beemer [BMW] crowd so much. We deal with just down-to-earth human beings that have their cars seized.” He even joked, “Under our ordinance, we have cornered the 1978 Cadillac motor vehicle part of southern New Mexico.”
According to Connelly, “we always try to get, every once in a while, maybe a good car.” He recounted how police tried to seize a 2008 Mercedes-Benz, during a stakeout at a bar: “The cops were undercover and were like ‘Ahhh!’” when they saw it. Had police forfeited the Benz, it would have been “the big seller” at a police auction. But they acted too hastily and so the car was ultimately returned to its owner.
During a presentation, Connelly let it slip that he thinks forfeiture ordinances are “self-serving.” Though if any law enforcement officers feel guilty or remorseful about seizing property, Connelly paraphrased a New Mexico court decision to assuage them: “If you make money on motor vehicle seizures, it’s ok, don’t feel bad.”
Also at the forfeiture conference in New Mexico was Stanley Harada, Chief Hearing Officer for Albuquerque and a “significant architect” for that city’s vehicle forfeiture law. He was asked just how much Albuquerque takes in from civil forfeiture. While he didn’t have that information, Harada did drop this bombshell: “I think they would rather not talk about those numbers because then it starts becoming more of a bullet-point for people that are trying to fight the program.”
In New Mexico, agencies are not required to collect data on how much revenue civil forfeiture has raised. That clearly prevents the public from holding police and prosecutors accountable for their actions. Moreover, if voters were aware just how often the government seized property, they’d be more likely to demand reforms...
Editor's note: Their are 8 short videos showing Mr. Connelly making his remarks at the link below. For a great backgrounder on asset forfeiture see this video.
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