Asset seizure run Amok

[Wildcard]

Feds seek to seize gold caps from drug dealers' teeth

04/07/2006

Associated Press

Talk about taking a bite out of crime — government lawyers are trying to remove the gold-capped teeth known as "grills" or "grillz" from the mouths of two men facing drug charges.

"I've been doing this for over 30 years and I have never heard of anything like this," said Richard J. Troberman, a forfeiture specialist and past president of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "It sounds like Nazi Germany when they were removing the gold teeth from the bodies, but at least then they waited until they were dead."

According to documents and lawyers involved in the case in U.S. District Court, Flenard T. Neal Jr. and Donald Jamar Lewis, charged with several drug and weapon violations, were taken on Tuesday from the Federal Detention Center to the U.S. marshal's office, where they were told the government had a warrant to seize the grills.

Before being put into a vehicle to be taken to a dentist in Seattle, they called their lawyers, who were able to halt the seizure, said Miriam Schwartz, Neal's public defender. A permanent stay of the seizure order was signed Tuesday by U.S. Magistrate J. Kelley Arnold, court documents show.

Grills, popularized by rappers such as Nelly, are customized tooth caps made of precious metals and jewels which can cost thousands of dollars for a full set. Some can be snapped onto the teeth like an orthodontic retainer, and others are permanently bonded to the teeth.

Neal and Lewis have permanently bonded grills, their lawyers said, declining to provide more description.

Government lawyers who asked a federal judge on March 29 to order confiscation of the grills said they did not know the caps had been bonded to the drug defendants' teeth.

"Asset forfeiture is a fairly routine procedure, and our attorneys were under the impression that these snapped out like a retainer," said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle.

Once the government understood that removal of the grills could damage the defendants' teeth, they abandoned the seizure attempt, she said.

Schwartz and Zenon Peter Olbertz, Lewis' lawyer, criticized what they said was a clandestine attempt to have the grills removed.

"It's shocking that this kind of action by the federal government could be sought and accomplished in secret, without anyone being notified," said Schwartz. "It reminds me of the secret detentions" in terrorist cases.

Seizure warrants are typically sealed to prevent defendants from trying to move or hide valuables and evidence, Langlie and court clerks said. They become public with the filing of a return that shows what has been seized.

http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APS...D8GR6IM04.html

[publius42]

It's shocking that this kind of action by the federal government could be sought and accomplished in secret, without anyone being notified

Not all that shocking, if it was a civil asset forfeiture action. Those are directed against property, not people. Of course, if you actually damage someone's teeth in the process of taking his property, it does get harder to go along with the fiction that taking property is punishing the property, not the owner.

Of course, punishing the owner by seizing his property would require a criminal asset forfeiture action, and those are taken against convicts. I note that this forfeiture action was to be taken against defendants, as in, people who have not been convicted, and therefore cannot yet be punished.

[Rich Lucibella]

Of course, punishing the owner by seizing his property would require a criminal asset forfeiture action, and those are taken against convicts.

Erroneous, pub. Quite often Asset Forfeiture is invoked with no charges against the owner whatsoever. Cash, boats, homes, planes, automobiles, farms, ranches...they've all been taken without any charge at all against the owners.
Rich

[pipoman]

Rich, in the circumstances you describe the old requirement for the owner of the property to contest the seizure required a % of the value of the property put up as bond, does this requirement still apply?

I always thought the bond requirement was very wrong without having at least charged the property owner (really should be convict) with a criminal offense.

[publius42]

Quite often Asset Forfeiture is invoked with no charges against the owner whatsoever. Cash, boats, homes, planes, automobiles, farms, ranches...they've all been taken without any charge at all against the owners.

Yes, I know, and that's kind of my point. In those cases, the government is using civil asset forfeiture proceedings to punish people for criminal behavior, but the legal fiction is, they are not punishing the people, but punishing the property. Punishing people requires a higher standard of proof, so they can't admit that's what they're doing, just as they can't admit that it promotes policing for profit.

[Rivers]

It'd be perfectly o.k. with me if they bypassed the dentist and seized the "grills" with a ballpeen hammer.

[publius42]

Would that be with or without a conviction, Rivers? Just wondering if you're a true-blue drug warrior or not.

Interesting question brought up in the same thread on THR:

Why do you send a person to a dentist to snap out a retainer? Anyone else think an attorney for the govt might just be lying about that one?

[Rich Lucibella]

Pipo-
Unknown as to the status of bonds in A.F.

Rich

[Sodbuster]

Scary stuff, but normal now in our present configuration as a nation. Just goes to show you normal isn't always good.

[Redworm]

Why do you send a person to a dentist to snap out a retainer?

Probably just covering their asses. Even if they were simple snap outs, sending them to a licensed dentist would avoid a future claim of being hurt by having some fed knock them out with a ball peen hammer.

[publius42]

Could be, and it's also possible these defendants are lying, and the things do just snap right out.

[Rich Lucibella]

Them there artificial knees and hips usually contain high concentrations of Titanium. Titanium is worth money on the open market.
Rich

[strike-hold]

nothin' surprises me anymore

i can believe it

[Marko Kloos]

Them there artificial knees and hips usually contain high concentrations of Titanium. Titanium is worth money on the open market.

How about organs? A kidney is worth a lot of cash on the open market, and nobody needs more than one to live anyway.

Especially if you can claim that the kidney was used to filter illegal narcotics out of the defendant's body.

[Rivers]

Lot of difference in detachable personal property and internals. I don't believe that conviction is necessary, legally, for asset seizures.

[Scott Conklin]

80% of AF cases do not spawn any conviction or even any criminal charges. This is an absolute insult to this nation and one more hint, along with Kelo, NAIS, land grabs and more, of exactly where we are heading at an increasing speed...

[steelheart]

"It sounds like Nazi Germany when they were removing the gold teeth from the bodies, but at least then they waited until they were dead."

Seig Heil the war on drugs!!:barf:

I hope neither of them have a pacemaker - the courts might order it yanked out, reconditioned and sold under asset forefiture law.

According to the U.S. Attorney's office, this action was all aboveboard and legal; I wonder what would happen if a detainee at Gitmo or an Iraqi POW was subjected to such treatment?

[pipoman]

I don't believe that conviction is necessary, legally, for asset seizures.

It used to be necessary to post a bond to contest a seizure. This is the difficulty because all of the persons assets have been seized, they have no way to post the bond so they cannot contest.

I am too lazy to research if this is still the case or not, I suspect it is.

[Scott Conklin]

Most all you could ever want to know about AF abuse...

http://www.fear.org/

[Destructo6]

So, what about seizing vehicles used to transport (smuggle) illegal aliens? Are those fair game?

[strike-hold]

So, what about seizing vehicles used to transport (smuggle) illegal aliens? Are those fair game?

the answer to that is no, there is open amnesty on that issue

[Scott Conklin]

Sounds fine to me...once we have the little things like charges, prosecution and conviction out of the way...

[Rivers]

It's been common, for at least 50 years, for firearms to be seized during certain federal game law violations...prior to conviction. I suppose the seized property has to be returned if the suspects are found innocent, which is rare.

I have absolutely no sympathy for drug users or drug dealers...parasites, all, and not worthy of life.

[publius42]

See any difference between "held pending the outcome of a trial" and "property of the seizing agency, regardless of whether there is ever a trial"?

[Matis]

I've read more than one account of people driving down the highway to a car auction or some such with considerable cash on them.

Stopped for traffic infraction, car searched and money seized in asset forfeiture -- ill-gotten gains and so on.

There may have been litigation that resulted in removal of the 10% bond required to fight for the money back.

But ever without that bond, with the cost of attorney, travel, etc, one can kiss their money good-by.


Sort of gives a new meaning to "highway robbery", doesn't it?




Good thread for this time of year with April 15th (really April 17th, this year) coming up.



matis