Judiciary Committee Hearings Postponed

     -- by Brenda Grantland, Esq., F.E.A.R. Chronicles, Vol. 1 No.
2, (June, 1992)

     Just days before the Senate Judiciary Committee oversight
hearings into the federal asset forfeiture laws were scheduled to
commence, the hearings were postponed.  A representative from
Senator Spector's office stated they were postponed because someone
wanted to attend a forfeiture conference in Miami.

     We have not been able to get a date for the postponed
hearings.  Senator Spector's aide said that it is unlikely they
will be held in June, and that if they were not held in July, they
probably would not be held at all this year.

     A reliable source tells us that, just a week or two before the
hearings were to be held, Gary Copeland, the witness who was
scheduled to testify on behalf of the Justice Department, appeared
on the Hill for a special open-staff briefing about forfeiture
before the staffs of the Judiciary, Labor and Oversight Committees. 
One wonders how much this briefing had to do with the postponement
of the hearings.

     Meanwhile, the House Government Operations Committee is also
talking about holding hearings on asset forfeiture.  Carol Bergman,
the aide to Representative John Conyers, said she could assure us
that Rep. Conyers would not allow the forfeiture issue to be swept
under the rug.  However, those hearings have not been scheduled
either.