Law Enforcement Seizures Rise, Drug Fund Pays For Equipment In Benton County

ROGERS -- Benton County deputies are seizing more vehicles and money and getting those assets turned over to the prosecuting attorney.

The prosecuting attorney, in turn, is giving more money back to local law enforcement for training and equipment, according to records.

State and local officials applaud the process and its increasing use, saying it takes the profit out of drug dealing, saves taxpayer money and shows how hard law enforcement is working.

A local attorney who handles many of the forfeiture cases said the standard for taking and keeping the property is low. All police have to do is say the property is "likely" connected to illegal drugs. Police can seize property without making an arrest. Courts order property forfeited without needing a criminal conviction.

The fund, locally called the prosecuting attorney's drug fund, has been around for years, but there has been a surge of revenue and expenditures for the past two years, county and prosecuting attorney records show.

The fund received $241,965 last year, up from $174,559 a year ago, or a 39 percent increase, according to numbers provided by Nathan Smith, prosecuting attorney-elect. Court cases are also up, which means more court fees have fed into the drug fund, he said.

"At the end of the day, it supports law enforcement and prosecuting services without further burdening county taxpayers," Smith said of the fund. "For me, it's an unquestionably good thing for the community."

Interim Prosecuting Attorney Jim Clark referred questions to Smith, who takes office next year.

Separate Courts

The rise in the amount of seized property then forfeited through civil court at Benton County is worrisome, said Holly Dickson, American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas legal director. Property owners are burdened with proving their money or cars aren't linked to drugs, Dickson said. People must prove they are innocent, instead of the other way around, she said.

A felony charge against a person is not necessary to strip him of property, said Ben T. Roberds, a general practice attorney in Bentonville. If a felony charge is brought against a person, for example, the case is not linked to the civil process, which is what is used to take property, he said.

For example, the Rogers Police Department seized a 2004 Ford Explorer from Garrett Smith of Rogers in April and said the vehicle was used to transport drugs. Samuel Martin, a deputy prosecuting attorney, petitioned the court to keep the car, but prosecutors dropped their claim in May and the car was returned.

Martin did not return a phone message left Thursday at the prosecuting attorney's office.

Smith's attorney, Greg Clark in Bentonville, said he didn't want to talk about the seizure because Smith still has felony drug-related charges pending. He didn't want to jeopardize that case, he said. A pretrial date on the felony case has been set for Oct. 6 in Benton County Circuit Court, court records show.

Roberds, who handles many local asset forfeiture cases in Northwest Arkansas, said even if a person is found "not guilty" in criminal court, he could still lose his property in civil court.

Chandler Street of Rogers was riding with friends and had about 1 ounce of marijuana and $541 on him when the Benton County Sheriff's Office stopped the car Jan. 4, according to court documents.

Deputies found the money and marijuana on Street after bringing a drug dog to search the car, records show. Police seized the money and arrested everyone in the vehicle.

Street argued in a court-filed response to civil proceedings against him that he had not been convicted of a felony, was not selling or buying drugs and had the money because he recently sold his car. He said in court documents that he was "told to sign" a report that said the money was linked to drugs.

The then-20-year-old college student fought the seizure in court. He filed information about selling his car, provided a witness statement and gave the court an extensive, written explanation of what happened.

"The $541 was my entire worth at the time of the arrest," Street wrote in his petition to get back his money. "My father sold the car for $1,200, and after I paid off my bills, the $541 was the remainder. This money was not from buying and selling marijuana."

Street asked for help from his public defender, but the attorney was only for criminal proceedings, David Street, Chandler Street's father, said in a telephone interview Friday. A defense attorney would have cost $500 at least, so the Streets tried to file the paperwork themselves.

The court found Street did not file paperwork in the way required by law, and Street lost his money.

Prosecutors diverted his felony charge. The charge of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver will be dropped if he stays out of trouble with the law until June 2015, court records show.

Most people don't go to civil court to contest losing their property, Smith said, because they know the money is from drug sales or the car was used to transport drugs.

Dickson said some people can't afford to hire an attorney and struggle to navigate the legal system alone. The result is people simply walk away.

War On Drugs

Law enforcement, prosecutors and state officials support asset seizures and the civil procedure. Civil rights are covered, they said, because there is a way for people to defend themselves in court.

"A person does not lose their property or money or anything like that just because a police officer takes it from them," Smith said. "They have the right to go to court. Any notion that people are just being railroaded is just nonsense."

The use of civil asset forfeiture laws increased with America's "War on Drugs" campaign in the mid-1980s, said Michael Johnson, a visiting law professor at the William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. States began authorizing their own civil asset forfeiture laws and creating drug task forces to increase seizures throughout the 1990s, he said.

Police can seize property, including airplanes, guns, computers and money, without making an arrest. Real estate can be seized if the property "substantially assisted in, facilitated in any manner, or was used or intended for use" in crimes related to drugs, according to Arkansas state law.

Real estate has not been seized in Benton County in years, Smith said.

Civil asset forfeiture laws and drug funds help curb crime and provide prosecutors and law enforcement with more money to fight crime without burdening taxpayers, said interim state Drug Director Steve Varady. Varady discussed the issue in email provided by Amy Webb, spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services.The drug director is the chairman of the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council, which is housed under the Human Services Department. The director receives confiscation reports from law enforcement agencies that seize property.

"Asset forfeiture laws, in general, are designed to take the profit out of drug trafficking," Varady said.

The Institute for Justice, a nonprofit civil liberties law firm that keeps tabs on asset forfeiture laws nationwide, reported Arkansas' forfeiture law puts regular people at risk for asset seizures, according to its website. Very little evidence is required to seize property, the burden of proof is on the owner to get the property back, and the state keeps all money generated through civil asset forfeiture, the group said.

For example, any money found near drugs or counterfeit drugs, manufacturing or distributing paraphernalia or a record of drug dealing is presumed to be forfeitable, according to Arkansas law.

"In my experience, we have good cops who make good seizures," Smith said.

No Rise In Crime

Crime is not going up and the number of calls for service is going down, but arrests in Benton County are climbing, said Rob Holly, chief deputy with the Sheriff's Office. Units dedicated to catching drug dealers and related crimes are working harder than ever, said Holly and Andy Lee IV, captain for the Sheriff's Office special operations division.

"The reason why the stats are so much higher is the amount of work the units have put in," Lee said. "The guys we have in there are phenomenally motivated."

About $136,020 in money was seized by deputies during the first 19 months Sheriff Kelley Cradduck was in office, according to a report he presented to justices of the peace in August. The Sheriff's Office has seized about $55,876 and 17 vehicles so far this year, according to state confiscation report records. A July county auction of vehicles brought in around $30,600 for the Sheriff's Office, according to accounting records.

In the previous two years, deputies seized $30,557 in 24 months, according to Cradduck. A report provided by former Sheriff Keith Ferguson shows $27,705 in money seizures total for 2011 and 2012.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office is part of the 4th Judicial District Drug Task Force and a local U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force, said Jay Cantrell, chief deputy. Seized money and assets come through these task forces and go to the county treasurer to be disbursed by the county comptroller into the state or federal drug fund.

Seized equipment and vehicles are converted to Sheriff's Office use by court order and are added to the county's fixed asset inventory, Cantrell said in an email.

In Benton County, the prosecuting attorney handles asset forfeiture funds. The county is not part of the same task force as Washington County.

The Benton County fund was used this year and last year to purchase items like a Tahoe for Cave Springs police, a vehicle for Bentonville police, a vehicle for Rogers police, two vehicles for the Sheriff's Office and law enforcement training, Smith said. That doesn't count 11 seized vehicles in use by the Sheriff's Office, according to Cradduck's report.

Smith didn't have a breakdown of expenditures made for each law agency, but he said the money is spent proportionally, meaning the agency that puts in the most generally gets the most out. The Benton County Sheriff's Office is among the top contributors to the drug fund, Smith said.

"We are kind of funding our own vehicles here," Holly said.

About $266,317 total was spent last year on "big ticket items," Smith said. That's compared with the $154,034 spent in 2012. The amounts account for expenditures for all law agencies in Benton County, he said.

The prosecuting attorney has reason to spend the money and not hoard it, Smith said. State law mandates any money in the fund over $250,000 must be turned over to the State Treasury. In 2012, about $7,000 in the drug fund had to be turned over to the state after the fund exceeded the cap, Smith said.

"It exists to be spent," Smith said.