DA Now Accepting PayPal (seized items on ebay)

[LeighAnn]

Edited to inclued link

The Montgomery County district attorney's office is joining the eBay nation to turn items seized during drug investigations into some quick cash.

District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. announced Monday that his office has opened a store on the popular online auction site to sell everything from cars to guitars to big screen TVs.

<snip>

Castor said his office will expand its e-peddling to include high-end merchandise such as cars, jewelry and expensive electronics.

''I think cars are going to be the big thing,'' he said. ''I want to put on everything we have that has been forfeited.''

Well — almost everything.

''Drugs are contraband. We can't put on drugs,'' Castor deadpanned.

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_2ebayjul12,0,5910913.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed

[Occulus]

1. And if the person is found innocent?

Are they out the property, or do they get compensated?

If neither... I read that as legalized theft.

[LeighAnn]

2. Read this from the ACLU re: Forfeiture

http://www.aclunc.org/opinion/001027-seizure.html

"Local forfeiture operations such as Oakland's are contrary to basic principles of due process and fundamental fairness, in the following ways:

Punishment without conviction. Under the Ordinance, a vehicle can be seized and sold without anyone being convicted, or even arrested, for the underlying criminal offense. In fact, the eventual dismissal or even acquittal of the criminal charge does not result in the return of the vehicle.

No presumption of innocence. The bedrock principle of our justice system -- that persons accused of crime are innocent until proven guilty -- is violated by this Ordinance. If you are accused of buying drugs or soliciting a prostitute, your car can be seized by the police without a warrant or any prior judicial hearing. Once your car is seized, the burden is on the owner to get back the car back, even if the owner had no knowledge that it was used for illegal activity. This disregard for the norms of our justice system would continue in the courts, where the traditional requirements of a right to a jury trial and that the government prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt are denied under the Ordinance.
Punishment of the innocent. Under federal and state forfeiture laws, the vehicles of innocent owners that are used for illegal purposes without their knowledge or consent are not subject to forfeiture... "

etc, there's more

[quaway]

3. damn, no drugs ! LOL

[sandnsea]

4. They've gone crazy with it

They don't even have to prove the property taken was paid for with drug money. I know some people who lost their home that they paid for with their jobs, not drugs. This was never the intent of the law, it's very sad.

[1932]

5. On the other hand, presuming seizures are proper, it's good that govern-

ments are maximizing the money they get for taxpayers by making the auction as broadly available as possible.

However, I never like it when the government prefers one private contractor over all others. If it were possible, they should make the auctions available across as many internet sites as possible.

[sandnsea]

7. So

It's okay to seize this property without due process, but it's not okay to pay people for property taken WITH due process under eminent domain laws. Is that it? Property seized in drug busts is NEVER taken with any sort of due process, NEVER. Guilt or innocence doesn't matter, your property is still gone.

[1932]

12. I'm saying that it's right for governments to auction seized property

PRESUMING IT'S SEIZED PROPERLY in way that raises the highest price and not in a way in which friends of politicians can get good stuff cheap at the taxpayer's expense.

That's ALL I'm saying.

[jody]

14. That's better than eminent domain. n/t

[sandnsea]

16. No it isn't

There's no due process at all with this seized property. They take it and you're presumed guilty and you have to figure out how to prove your innocence.

Eminent Domain basically prevents company towns and fiefdoms where one person owns the entire town. It creates parks and airports and pools and roads and schools. In New London it completely renovates a 90 acre area. It creates a new park, shoreline improvements,
a hotel/conference center, a daycare facility within walking distance of a bioscience research park, an athletic center, 80 units of housing, retail and commercial space, and a landscaped riverwalk that connects to a walkway system in downtown New London. No, sorry, 10 people shouldn't be able to stop that. Just like ONE person shouldn't be able to buy it all up and turn it into slum property and not provide schools, parks, fire and police protection, etc. The public good has to come before the individual, whether the individual is a corporation or one family who refuses to sell their house.

[SouthernDem2004]

17. Oddly enought being found guilty or innocent does not matter.

Seizure hearings are often not part of a criminal trial.

[krkaufman]

6. I see a future 'Law & Order' episode...

... where an ebay buyer is killed for having purchased some druglord's bling on ebay.

[LeighAnn]

8. A guy I know bought a speaker one time that had a baggie of quaaludes

Must have been stashed 20 years or so.

Next thing you know, people will be getting busted for receiving drugs in the mail, because they bought something seized on ebay that still had contraband hiding inside of it.

Like that guy that bought the car at an auction and they found real old marijuana behind the wheel, and he went to prison even though an expert testified that the marijuana was way old. Wish I could find that story, but I can't.

[genieroze]

11. That happened to my husband, sort of.

He bought a used car off of a guy who buys cars at auctions and resells them. He was fixing the stereo system and found pot behind the system. He doesn't smoke so he flushed it. He said "I'm not calling the cops, they will bust me and steal my car" We know this for a fact because we have a scanner and we have heard them say "nice car let's pull em over and see if we can take it". Of course like quotas, they will deny this.

[davidinalameda]

9. oh my goodness

I'd watch that one--hell, I watch all of the them

[Patiod]

10. This guy ran for PA DA and was defeated

He's a hard-core Republican drip. My friends who know him personally say he's itching to be Governor; fortunately, he lacks the social skills, but not the massive ego and power-hunginess.

I've always thought confiscation without a trial is repulsive and clearly unconstitutional.

[northzax]

13. confiscated property should be destroyed

not resold. Only property siezed in fufillment of a debt should be sold, to pay that debt. Allowing police departments to, in essence profit from seizures is not wise. The police have an incentive to, in the best possible light, err on the side on confiscation, and in the worst light go out looking for property to sieze, in order to profit from it. Now, if the proceeds went to, say, the school system, or scholarships for the community, then the force would have less incentive to confiscate, but that still leaves open internal corruption.

[LeighAnn]

15. Not only that, they let dealers deal so they can have assets to seize

I remember a guy getting busted where I live, everyone and their dog knew he was a drug dealer. In the article about his arrest, they said it was a six-year sting operation and bragged about the cash, vehicles, boats etc that they were able to seize.

My theory is that they let dealers deal a lot longer than is necessary to "build a case", so that this person can build up assests that they can seize. Meanwhile lots of families get ruined as the dealer spreads his poison all around town.

[SouthernDem2004]

18. I disagree with that...

It does take a long time to build a good felony case against the middle level and upper level drug dealers. They generally do not sling on the block. I know who is transporting and selling dope in my city... proving it takes time though....


By the way, I do not like the current seizure laws even though I am a Police Officer. The fact that you have to prove in court that something was not gotten illegally just flies in the face of "innocent until proven guilty." That being said I have been responsible for seizing property. Sometimes it is a good thing.

[LeighAnn]

19. This guy was a meth cook

...with a steady stream of "crusties" coming in and out of the house at all hours of the night and day. I would have thought a simple knock-and-talk at any time might have established probable cause (dude! you've got a needle sticking out of your arm!)

I live in a county that is rife with corruption, though. The cops are good but the politicians are corrupt, we have a "drug task force" city/county cooperative here that I feel is suspect. I had a nice inside scoop in county politics during the '90s, and some of the players involved in administering these hundreds of millions of dollars for the task force are people who are really good at filling their wallets and bank accounts with grandma's property tax money. I strongly susepect that any drug task force decision that that is made above street-cop level is put through the "how much money can we make off this?" test. Massive conflicts of interest. I think property seizures are just another part of the racket.

I hope things are better where you are.