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DYK police & prosecutors can seize & keep money w/o a criminal charge?
It's called #civilforfeiture and it's legal.
@WBUR's investigation w @propublica shows it’s so hard for people to recover their money, the practice may violate due process rights.
https://wbur.fm/3m8NAaR
Here’s how civil forfeitures works: Police seize your $ or property on just a suspicion of drug crimes. Once it's seized, it's easier in Mass. than in any other state for police & prosecutors to keep your cash. And prosecutors can sit on it for decades before notifying owners.
We found that’s happening a lot in Worcester County. Our investigation found District Attorney Joseph D. Early's office regularly stockpiles money for years - sometimes decades - before notifying people about how they can fight to get the money back.
The DA has brought in ~$4 million through forfeitures over the last 4 fiscal years. Forfeitures have become lucrative for DA offices. Some experts say that’s why the practice is applied to regular people and not just big drug dealers, like the law originally intended.
There’s no public data around conviction rates tied forfeitures so, we created it. Of the 100s of people who lost money & property to the Worcester DA’s office through forfeitures in 2018, nearly one in four had no related drug conviction or drug charge.pic.twitter.com/NhFpLkrmka
DA Early’s office also makes it hard for people to get their money back. Our analysis of Worcester County cases found hundreds of people had to wait more than a decade before the DA even tried to notify them about their money. Experts say this may violate due process rights.pic.twitter.com/jJm0ttOWNO
The state's #civilforfeiture laws make it so difficult to get money back after it is seized, that the majority of people don't even bother to fight for it.
In FY2019, 84% of forfeiture cases in Worcester County were decided by default in favor of the DA.
DA Early says his office is following the law and blames the slow pace of criminal justice work for some of the delays in notifying people of their seized cash. He now says he supports raising the burden of proof for prosecutors to keep cash.
This is a story - supported by the @PulitzerCenter - about one of the most controversial law enforcement practices in Massachusetts, a possible conflict of interest by police and prosecutors and how, often, it’s poor people who lose out on cash.https://wbur.fm/3m8NAaR
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This is the kind of crap you read about in confederate states
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