This one is especially important. The reporter has the audacity to tell it
like it is about the seizure scam!
ONLINE at
http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/stories/110903dnmettaskforce.a1641.html
or http://tinyurl.com/ub7f
Criminals' assets help fund drug task force
DA denies it, but others say property is traded for leniency
12:39 PM CST on Sunday, November 9, 2003
By KEVIN KRAUSE / The Dallas Morning News
DENTON – Fred Snow sold cars and cocaine.
William Burl Hatchett beat his prostitutes and forced them to have his name
tattooed on their bodies.
David Treft cooked an estimated half-million dollars worth of
methamphetamine.
All three faced prison; all three got probation.
That's because – though the district attorney denies it – the North
Central Texas Narcotics Task Force struck deals with them and others for
lighter punishments in exchange for cash, cars, motorcycles, jewelry and
other property that the task force needed to fund its operations. Denver
McCarty, a former task force prosecutor, said he offered the deals to a
half-dozen defendants during the last two years because the task force
needed the money to stay in business.
"If we don't have enough money by the end of the grant year, we're all out
of a job," he said. "You kind of knew what kind of forfeiture money you
needed to have, or everybody's going home."
Task forces like the one in Denton County comprise police officers and
prosecutors from various member agencies. Most of their salaries are paid
using federal grants. Such grants require that a portion of the task
force's budget be brought in by the task force. That's done in part by
seizing the assets of defendants, having courts validate the forfeiture of
the property and then selling it.
But defendants can use the courts to fight seizures for years. And the
Denton County task force has committed to using property seizures, not tax
dollars, for the local contribution of its budget. To speed the process,
prosecutors have persuaded some defendants to hand over – forfeit –
their assets in exchange for a lighter sentence.
In Denton County, task force forfeitures have averaged about $150,000 per
year for the last six years, according to the county auditor's office.
. . .
Ethics at issue
Under state law, police can seize property if they believe it was used to
commit certain crimes or was bought with crime proceeds. But such seizures
can be held up in the courts. Some defendants initially oppose the seizure,
then agree to forfeit their property in the hope of lighter sentences.
Experts say such an arrangement is legal but disagree whether it's ethical.
"I think it looks bad," said Bruce McFarling, a former North Central Texas
task force prosecutor who is now a state district judge in Denton County.
"It would be a matter of, we're letting criminals go because they're paying
property. Someone with more property will get a better deal than someone
else."
. . .
How common?
It's difficult to gauge how widespread leniency-for-forfeiture deals are
because they are usually made in private, defense attorneys say. The
federal government doesn't make them. But published reports indicate
they've occurred in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Arkansas and Wisconsin
in recent years.
"It just keeps going on. What's to stop it?" said David B. Smith,
co-chairman of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers'
Forfeiture Abuse Task Force. "Each DA has his own little fiefdom. If he's
elected, there's no one above him who can stop it except the public."
Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill said that if a case is solid
against a drug dealer, it's fairly easy to seize the suspect's assets in
court.
"I don't see any necessity in cutting the guy a deal when we're going to
get his property anyway," said Mr. Hill, whose office is not associated
with a regional drug task force.
. . .
Mr. Treft said task force members told him he could agree to forfeit cash
and three vehicles or spend the rest of his life in prison. He took their
deal before a grand jury could hear his case.
"It was more like a robbery than a bust, he said. "They ran right over me
and came right after my bikes. ... They didn't even care about the drugs,"
Mr. Treft said. "They were like kids in a candy store. They were jumping up
and down, all oooing and ahhing when they uncovered my bike."
Mr. Treft said he was later given the option of buying back his seized
property and paid the task force $15,000 for his 1996 Chevrolet and 2002
custom-built motorcycle.
He said his attorney, Stephen Wohr, told him he could get his other
motorcycle back for another $12,000. He said he couldn't come up with the
money in time and the bike was forfeited, along with more than $13,000 in
cash, two television sets and camera equipment.
Mr. Wohr declined to comment.
$100,000 short?
A case stemming from a 2001 raid at a house in the Denton County city of
Little Elm illustrates how forfeitures can affect sentencing.
Kevin Kuntz, 39, was facing life in prison after task force agents found
several methamphetamine labs at his home. He received 90 days in prison,
followed by eight years' probation, in exchange for $100,000, according to
his attorney, Fred Marsh.
Also arrested at the Little Elm house on the same charges as Mr. Kuntz were
Glenn Boliver, 37, of Lake Dallas, and Patrick Pappas, 40, of Watauga.
Mr. Pappas agreed in April to plead guilty to a lesser charge and received
a 12-year prison sentence. Mr. Boliver's case went to federal court, where
he pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in September and was sentenced 19
years in prison.
His attorney, Clifton Holmes, said, "My guy didn't have $100,000."
E-mail kkrause@dallasnews.com
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