textfiles-politics/pythonCode/output/laws6.xml

<xml><p>Paying For Your Innocence

The Justice Department's <ent type = 'person'>Terwilliger</ent> says that in some cases "dumb
judgement" may occasionally cause problems, but he believes there is an
adequate solution. "That's why we have courts."  But the notion that
courts are a safeguard for citizens wrongly accused "is way off," says
<ent type = 'person'>Thomas <ent type = 'person'>Kerner</ent></ent>, a forfeiture lawyer in Boston. "Compared to forfeiture,
<ent type = 'person'>David</ent> and <ent type = 'person'>Goliath</ent> was a fair fight."  Starting from the moment that
the government serves notice that it intends to take an item, until any
court challenge is completed, "the government gets all the breaks,"
says <ent type = 'person'>Kerner</ent>. The government need only show probable cause for a
seizure, a standard no greater than what is needed to get a search
warrant. The lower standard means the government can take a home without
any more evidence than it normally needs to take a look inside.
Clients who challenge the government, says attorney <ent type = 'person'>Edward Hinson</ent> of
Charlotte, N.C., "have the choice of fighting the full resources of the
U.S. treasury or caving in."

<ent type = 'person'><ent type = 'person'>Barry</ent> <ent type = 'person'>Kolin</ent></ent> caved in.  <ent type = 'person'>Kolin</ent> watched Portland, Ore., police padlock
the doors of Harvey's, his bar and restaurant for bookmaking on March 2.
Earlier that day, eight police officers and <ent type = 'person'>Amy Holmes Hehn</ent>, the
Multnomah County deputy district attorney, had swept into the bar,
shooed out waitresses and customers and arrested Mike <ent type = 'person'>Kolin</ent>, <ent type = 'person'>Barry</ent>'s
brother and bartender, on suspicion of bookmaking.  Nothing in the
police documents mentioned <ent type = 'person'><ent type = 'person'>Barry</ent> <ent type = 'person'>Kolin</ent></ent>, and so the 40-year-old was
stunned when authorities took his business, saying they believe he knew
about the betting. He denied it.  Hehn concedes she did not have the
evidence to press a criminal case against <ent type = 'person'><ent type = 'person'>Barry</ent> <ent type = 'person'>Kolin</ent></ent>, "so we seized
the business civilly."  During a recess in a hearing on the seizures
weeks later, "the deputy DA says if I paid them $30,000 I could open up
again," <ent type = 'person'>Kolin</ent> recalls. When the deal dropped to $10,000, <ent type = 'person'>Kolin</ent> took it.
<ent type = 'person'>Kolin</ent>'s lawyer, <ent type = 'person'>Jenny Cooke</ent>, calls the seizure "extortion." She
says: "There is no difference between what the police did to <ent type = 'person'>Barry</ent>
<ent type = 'person'>Kolin</ent> or what <ent type = 'person'>Al Capone</ent> did in Chicago when he walked in and said, 'This
is a nice little bar and it's mine.' the only difference is today they
call this civil forfeiture.''

Minor Crimes, Major Penalties

Forfeiture's tremendous clout helps make it "one of the most effective
tools that we have," says <ent type = 'person'>Terwilliger</ent>.  The clout, though, puts
property owners at risk of losing more under forfeiture that they would
in a criminal case under the same circumstances.  Criminal charges in
federal and many state courts carry maximum sentences. But there's no
dollar cap on forfeiture, leaving citizens open to punishment that far
exceeds the crime.

<ent type = 'person'><ent type = 'person'>Robert</ent> <ent type = 'person'>Brewer</ent></ent> of <ent type = 'person'>Irwin</ent>, Idaho, is dying of prostate cancer, and uses
marijuana to ease the pain and nausea that comes with radiation
treatments.  Last Oct. 10, a dozen deputies and Idaho tax agents
walked into the <ent type = 'person'>Brewer</ent>'s living room with guns drawn and said they had a
warrant to search.  The <ent type = 'person'>Brewer</ent>s, <ent type = 'person'>Robert</ent>, 61, and <ent type = 'person'>Bonita</ent>, 44, both
retired form the postal service, moved from Kansas City, Mo., to the
tranquil, wooded valley of <ent type = 'person'>Irwin</ent> in 1989. Six months later, he was
diagnosed.  According to police reports, an informant told authorities
<ent type = 'person'>Brewer</ent> ran a major marijuana operation.  The drug SWAT team found
eight plants in the basement under a grow light and a half-pound of
marijuana. The <ent type = 'person'>Brewer</ent>s were charged with two felony narcotics counts and
two charges for failing to buy state tax stamps for the dope.  "I
didn't like the idea of the marijuana, but it was the only thing that
controlled his pain," Mrs. <ent type = 'person'>Brewer</ent> says. The government seized the
couples five-year-old Ford van that allowed him to lie down during his
twice-a-month trips for cancer treatment at a Salt Lake City hospital,
270 miles away. Now they must go by car.  "That's a long painful ride
for him... He needed that van, and the government took it," Mrs. <ent type = 'person'>Brewer</ent>
says. "It looks like they can punish people any way they see fit."

The <ent type = 'person'>Brewer</ent>s know nothing about the informant who turned them in, but
informants play a big role in forfeiture. Many of them are paid,
targeting property in return for a cut of anything that is taken.  The
Justice Department's asset forfeiture fund paid $24 mil. to informants
in 1990 and has $22 million allocated this year.  Private citizens who
snitch for a fee are everywhere. Some airline counter clerks receive
cash awards for alerting drug agents to "suspicious" travellers. The
practice netted <ent type = 'person'>Melissa Furtner</ent>, a Continental Airlines clerk in Denver,
at least $5,800 between 1989 and 1990, photocopies of checks show.

Increased surveillance, recruitment of citizen-cops, and expansion of
forfeiture sweeps are all part of a take-now, litigate-later syndrome
that builds prosecutors careers, says a former federal prosecutor.
"Federal law enforcement people are the most ambitious I've ever met,
and to get ahead they need visible results. Visible results are
convictions, and, now, forfeitures," says <ent type = 'person'>Don <ent type = 'person'>Lewis</ent></ent> of Meadville,
Crawford County. (ED: a Pa county north of Pgh by two counties.)
<ent type = 'person'>Lewis</ent> spent 17 years as a prosecutor, serving as an assistant U.S.
attorney in Tampa as recently as 1988. He left the Tampa Job -- and
became a defense lawyer -- when "I found myself tempted to do things I
wouldn't have thought about doing years ago."  <ent type = 'person'>Terwilliger</ent> insists
U.S. attorneys would never be evaluated on "something as unprofessional
as dollars."  Which is not to say Justice doesn't watch the bottom
line.  <ent type = 'person'>Cary Copeland</ent>, director of the department' Executive Office for
Asset Forfeiture, says they tried to "squeeze the pipeline" in 1990
when the amount forfeited lagged behind Justice's budget projections.
He said this was done by speeding up the process, not by doing "whole
lot of seizures."</p>

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<p>* Origin: Shark's Mouth 313-658-1110 750 MEGS Dual Amiga/IBM (23:313/108)</p></xml>