"An hour into their questioning at the station, the county’s district attorney, Lynda K. Russell, arrived and told the couple they had two options. They could face felony charges for “money laundering” and “child endangerment”—which would place them in jail and their children in foster care—or they could sign their cash over to the city of Tenaha and get back on the road. “No criminal charges shall be filed,” a waiver Russell drafted read, “and our children shall not be turned over to CPS.” Boatright and Henderson gave up the money. “Later,” Stillman writes, Boatright “learned that cash-for-freedom deals had become a point of pride for Tenaha, and that versions of the tactic were used across the country. ‘Be safe and keep up the good work,’ the city marshal wrote to [the officer], following a raft of complaints from out-of-town drivers who claimed that they had been stopped in Tenaha and stripped of cash, valuables, and, in at least one case, an infant child, without clear evidence of contraband.” “Outraged by their experience in Tenaha,” Stillman continues, “Jennifer Boatright and Ron Henderson helped to launch a class-action lawsuit challenging the abuse of a legal doctrine known as civil-asset forfeiture.” The practice does not require suspects to be guilty of any crime. Fighting it in court is expensive and can take years. Tight budgets and personal greed mean law enforcement officers as well as governments have an incentive to milk the practice for all they can. Revenue gains over the years have been staggering. “At the Justice Department,” Stillman writes, “proceeds from forfeiture soared from $27 million in 1985 to $556 million in 1993. (Last year, the department took in nearly $4.2 billion in forfeitures, a record.) The strategy helped reconcile President Reagan’s call for government action in fighting crime with his call to reduce public spending. In 1989, Attorney General Richard Thornburgh boasted, ‘It’s now possible for a drug dealer to serve time in a forfeiture-financed prison after being arrested by agents driving a forfeiture-provided automobile while working in a forfeiture-funded sting operation.’ ”
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 07:54:18 +0000
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