search warrants and assest seizure

[dtfsux]

Got a question and looking for hard facts, not opinions. I plan on asking my atty next week but wondering if anyone knows.

Say a search warrant is issued and executed on a residence. Evidence and assests from supposed drug profits are taken. Then county sues for assests. What happens if the initial search warrant is thrown out?

I understand the criminal case is seperate from the civil case. But if the warrant is thrown out, then they had no reason to be in the house and take the assests. Kind of like fruit from the poisonous tree.

 

[Dr Dog]

so you want them to return the evidence?

 

[dtfsux]

return the assests like cars, computers, boats, motorcycles etc. The computers are in limbo because they are holding them as proceeds from drug profits and evidence. Everything else is seized as drug profits.

But if all the evidence (drugs) is thrown out to due to illegal search, then in reality they have nothing to prove drug proceeds and all assests should be returned. Or can they still use the drugs they found in a civil case?

Anyone familiar with this knows the cases are independent of each other and your assests can be long gone before your criminal case is over or before you even get discovery.

 

[JJScorpio]

If the warrant is deemed illegal than everything after that should also be deemed invalid. Now, that's not to say that the State doesn't have other laws they can fall back on in Civil Court. A simple DMV search will show vehicles owned by someone and then they could look at work history, or lack there of to prove that the person had no means to purchase said property.

 

[fireman]

Yea, as far as i know it all depends on your state and city Statutes, unless this is federal.

The best advice i will give you is get a lawyer and start figuring out how to have a legitimate reason for all the possessions, especially money. Say you have a business and it generates a lot of money that would be a good place to say it came from and such.

So basically you need to get a lawyer figure out where you can tell your lawyer the cheese came from and all the possessions. I would suggest maybe tryign to find a lawyer with a great investigator. Investigators can make a good law firm a great one especially if they have an in house investigator. Although it may not be necessary for your case but it could come in handy since most investigators are ex cops and no how to get around shit. Firms with in house just have them at their disposal 24/7 instead of having to pay to get help if needed.

I think there was a case recently in cali maybe the most likely that had a guy who had a couple lbs taken? and then he got it back from the ruling in court. I remember it cause i thought it was funny. But tip of advice lawyer may cost more than possessions sometime. I know one i worked for would a charged ohh say $20,ooo-$50,ooo

 

[hkush]

Here's what Wiki says:

There are two types of forfeiture cases, criminal and civil. Almost all forfeiture cases today are civil.[citation needed] In civil forfeiture cases, the US Government sues the item of property, not the person; the owner is effectively a third party claimant. Before the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act was enacted in 2000, the government only had to establish probable cause that the property was subject to forfeiture; the owner had to prove on a "preponderance of the evidence" that it was not. The new law holds the government to the "preponderance of evidence" standard and shifts the burden of proof to the federal government instead of the property owner.[1] The property owner still need not be found guilty of any crime. In contrast, criminal forfeiture is usually carried out in a sentence following a conviction and is a punitive act against the offender. Since the government can choose the type of case, a civil case is almost always chosen. The costs of such cases is high for the owner, usually totaling around $10,000 and can take up to three years.
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So, they have to prove it was bought with drug money. A much higher burden that you having to prove it wasn't. But since it will cost you $10,000 and three years in court (on average), and then the computer equipment will be worth about $10. I'd say the equipment is gone.