Forfeiture Law Ups Pressure on Dealers

Drug Cash Seizures
• Click here to see this map. (Map requires Adobe Acrobat viewer. Click here for a free copy.)

Drug dealers in Arkansas may be cruising just as fast as they can now. But they’ll only have fun, fun, fun ’til the cops take the T-bird away.

At least, that’s the intention of the state’s forfeiture law that prosecutors say is designed to make a drug bust no day at the beach.

Under the law, last revised in 2003, all sorts of personal property can be seized during a drug raid if that property was used in connection with drug activity or was purchased with drug money. Arkansas Act 1120 of 1999 restructured the asset forfeiture procedures to establish accountability in the forfeiture system.

That sentiment could give local business owners at least some “good vibrations” since a recent study conducted on Benton County by the University of Arkansas Center for Business and Economic Research found that drug use costs society much more than forfeitures could ever pay.

Arkansas confiscated $3.8 million in currency and drove away with 683 automobiles and 282 weapons in 2003. That doesn’t count the numerous “other” items, which can include four-wheelers, campers, pagers, scanners, night scopes, computers and jewelry. Since 1999, the state has seized $17.3 million in cash.

The fourth judicial district, which includes Washington and Madison counties, seized $623,479 in cash and 48 cars during that time. Benton County confiscated $256,967 and 46 cars. Most of the time, the prosecutor’s office has a standard value for what kinds of vehicles it will pursue for forfeiture, but it depends.

“For instance, a lot of times, undercover work is best done in a 15-year-old Camaro that barely runs,” said Drew Ledbetter, deputy prosecuting attorney for Benton County.

According to the UA study, Benton County’s combined employers annually fork out an estimated $674,788 to pay for medical expenses related to their employees who use methamphetamines (an estimated 446 people in Benton County).

The study calculated that the estimated total annual cost of meth use to Benton County employers is more than $20 million. About 50 percent of that figure can be attributed to absenteeism and another 30 percent to lost productivity. The Benton County Methamphetamine Task Force commissioned the report.

One Washington County meth lab cost apartment owners Stephen and Rexanne Mansfield more than $5,000 in repairs after they caught a tenant trying to manufacture the drug, which in its most common form looks similar to powdered sugar.

The tenant was arrested, evicted and the lab was dismantled by authorities. Mansfield Property Management was left to rebuild.

“We stripped out all the flooring, took out the dry wall, took apart the air ducts,” Stephen Mansfield said. “Everything had to be cleaned and stripped down.”

Stephen Mansfield said the toxic chemicals used to make meth also eroded the pipes in all of the plumbing. Thankfully in his case, Mansfield said, other tenants didn’t have to be moved during the cleanup. The Mansfields, who own more than 700 apartment units in Fayetteville, never recovered the loss.

“Unfortunately, it’s the cost of doing business,” Mansfield said. “The net effect is that other tenants have to cover that in their rent. It’s a cost to everyone.”

Cruising Down The Highway

“What you see is the dope going east and the money coming west on [Interstate] 40,” said William J. Bryant, special agent in charge for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Bryant said the federal agents check their database to help local and state agencies in an investigation. The decision to make a case federal, he said, is up to the county prosecutor.

If the DEA seizes the money, it takes 20 percent and gives the rest to the participating agencies.

“By looking at our forfeitures, it may or may not be an accurate picture of what people are doing,” said Keith Rutledge, Arkansas’ drug director. “We know this, on [Interstate] 40, you have more confiscations than anywhere else.”

Rutledge said confiscations have also increased on Interstate 30 between Texarkana and Little Rock and on Interstate 540 between Fort Smith and the Missouri border.

Doug Pope, project coordinator for the Fourth Judicial District Drug Task Force, said recent task force seizures suggest that I-540 might be a thoroughfare for methamphetamines and other drugs.

Pope said the task force worked about 300 cases in 1992. In 2003, it had more than 600 cases. Last year, local law enforcement in Washington and Madison counties made 529 arrests related to meth and seized 102 meth labs, Pope said.

Crawford County, which ranked No. 2 statewide, had the highest per capita cash seizures in the state when the years 1999 through 2003 were compiled. Cash seizures totaled $1.1 million in 2002, which was its highest take year from 1999 to 2003, when cash totaled $1.6 million

District 2, which includes six counties in the northeast corner, had the highest take at $6.5 million in five years.

A law enforcement agency might not get all the money seized, and that isn’t known until the final court decision is made, said Jean Smith, management project analyst with the state drug director’s office.

When annual proceeds of sales and moneys forfeited exceed $20,000 per county, 20 percent then goes toward funding the Crime Lab Equipment Fund.

Any single cash seizure that exceeds $250,000 is passed on to the state drug director, who then deposits the money in the Special State Assets Forfeiture Fund. There is less than $2 million in the fund right now, Rutledge said.

“We spent about $450,000 on grants to local units recently,” he said.

The Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council, in turn, administers the money in the fund.

The Code

Rutledge said his office handles more than 1,800 confiscation reports per year from about 300 different law enforcement agencies.

The fourth district also received the largest federal grant award, $305,000, of any district or municipality statewide for the 2004 grant year. The funding comes from the Byrne Drug Law Enforcement Grant, which District 4 has been receiving for its task force since 1991. About 75 percent of the task force is funded through the grant and the remaining 25 percent must come from local or state government funds ($134,061).

Madison County hands over its forfeiture proceeds to the Washington County prosecutor for administration. The entire state is expected to receive about $5.4 million in federal Byrne Grant money in 2005, said Ann Purvis, administrator of the Office of Intergovernmental Services of the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.

Benton County does not receive any federal funding. The prosecutor manages Benton County’s proceeds from forfeitures, like District 4. Washington County Prosecutor Terry Jones said his office sets a limit to what it will pursue for forfeiture.

“Seven hundred dollars is our break-even point,” Jones said. “The goal is to take away the profits from the drug operation, not take away inheritance or rent money.”

A lot of the time, Jones said, the actual amount collected from a forfeiture might not even cover the fees associated with processing it.

About 40 percent of the forfeiture funds go directly back to the task force, Jones said. The remainder is split between the prosecutor and the drug director.

Jones said it would be “crazy” to confiscate a car worth $300. Steve Gunderson of Gunderson Law Firm PLC handles all the forfeiture cases for District 4. He is paid $75 per hour for out-of-court work and $100 for in-court work. All of the forfeiture cases in Benton County are handled in-house.

Ledbetter said he would not recommend starting a forfeiture action on a vehicle worth less than $5,000 in equity.

“We always try to keep the criminal case separate from the civil, because we don’t want to make the appearance we are trading a good offer in a criminal case in exchange for vehicle or cash,” Ledbetter said.”

In some cases, law enforcement will seize property to be handed over for civil forfeiture.

Madison County Chief Deputy Robert Boyd said he has two cases involving property seizure still pending. One case, which involves a portion of a 90-acre parcel, includes an owner who was busted in June 2003 for growing marijuana.