How the DEA took a young man's life savings without ever charging him with a crime

[Panich52]

Washington Post: How the DEA took a young man's life savings without ever charging him with a crime

Joseph Rivers was hoping to hit it big. According to the Albuquerque Journal, the aspiring businessman from just outside of Detroit had pulled together $16,000 in seed money to fulfill a lifetime dream of starting a music video company. Last month, Rivers took the first step in that voyage, saying goodbye to the family and friends who had supported him at home and boarding an Amtrak train headed for Los Angeles.

He never made it. From the Albuquerque Journal:

A DEA agent boarded the train at the Albuquerque Amtrak station and began asking various passengers, including Rivers, where they were going and why. When Rivers replied that he was headed to LA to make a music video, the agent asked to search his bags. Rivers complied.

The agent found Rivers's cash, still in a bank envelope. He explained why he had it: He was starting a business in California, and he'd had trouble in the past withdrawing large sums of money from out-of-state banks.

The agents didn't believe him, according to the article. They said they thought the money was involved in some sort of drug activity. Rivers let them call his mother back home to corroborate the story. They didn't believe her, either.

The agents found nothing in Rivers's belongings that indicated that he was involved with the drug trade: no drugs, no guns. They didn't arrest him or charge him with a crime. But they took his cash anyway, every last cent, under the authority of the Justice Department's civil asset forfeiture program.

Rivers's life savings represent just a drop in the Justice Department's multibillion-dollar civil asset forfeiture bucket. Rivers has retained a lawyer in the hope of getting at least some of his money back. Rivers says he suspects he may have been singled out for a search because he was the only black person on that part of the train.

There is no presumption of innocence under civil asset forfeiture laws. Rather, law enforcement officers only need to have a suspicion -- in practice, often a vague one -- that a person is involved with illegal activity in order to seize their property. On the highway, for instance, police may cite things like tinted windows, air fresheners or trash in the car, according to a Washington Post investigation last year.

More
http://dpa.convio.net/site/R?i=tR9h8MhPWwAXc7hoPJ4rzQ

[Vattel]

1. Damn. It is time for the courts to step up and declare those laws unconstitutional

because they clearly are contrary to the due process clauses of the 5th and 14th amendment. It shouldn't even be a close case.

[Warpy]

2. Legalized robbery is what they are

and it's how local police have been able to buy military hardware.

So far, the corrupt USSC has upheld forfeiture laws, hideously unconstitutional to anyone with even a basic nodding acquaintanceship with the 4th amendment.

NM has quietly passed a law ending this unconstitutional practice by local law enforcement. Unfortunately, we still have to contend with the lawless DEA.

It's another example of how prohibition has gone very wrong. End it.

[Vattel]

5. I am going to have to take a look at the USSC case or cases that address this.

I just can't see how this isn't depriving people of property without due process of law.

[Rex]

3. The DEA...

A pathetic waste of our resources.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. kick

[elleng]

6. Rand Paul introduces bill to reform civil asset forfeiture.

the bill: It would “would remove the profit incentive for forfeiture by redirecting forfeitures assets from the Attorney General’s Asset Forfeiture Fund to the Treasury’s General Fund.” Read the full text of the bill here.

Paul, along with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), appears to be walking the walk when it comes to criminal justice reform. In addition to the redemption bill he and Booker co-sponsored that I wrote about a few weeks ago, Paul also recently introduced a bill that would bar the federal government from prosecuting medical marijuana patients in states where medical marijuana is legal.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/07/25/rand-paul-introduces-bill-to-reform-civil-asset-forfeiture/