POLICE BOARD SEEKS RESOLUTION TO SEIZURE DEALINGS

With pressure building, the Kansas City police board will begin talking
next week about ways to quickly end the controversy surrounding seized drug
money and other types of cash and property police have been keeping.

"We just want to get it resolved," board President Dennis Eckold said Monday.

On Friday, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon sued the board to try to
recover $3.5 million in seized, abandoned and unclaimed cash and property
that it has been holding since 1997.

The lawsuit says Nixon has no other way "to compel the board's compliance
with Missouri law" and asks a judge to order the board to comply with
Missouri law.

In the wake of the lawsuit, state Sen. Harry Wiggins, a Kansas City
Democrat, sent a letter Monday urging the board to issue a formal statement
"giving full support, without any equivocation," to a bill he is sponsoring
to force police in Missouri to follow state forfeiture laws.

"I cannot believe the highly respected law enforcement agencies in Missouri
would want to become involved in a questionable scheme...either by evading
what Missouri law intends or through some devious process diverting funds
through the federal law to controvert Missouri law," Wiggins wrote.

Wiggins' letter warned that the forfeiture issue was now a national
controversy and urged the board to "clear the air as quickly as humanly
possible."

Last month The Kansas City Star published a series of stories showing that
police not only in Missouri but also across the country circumvent state
laws with the help of federal agencies to keep millions of dollars in drug
money they seize.

Many states, to prevent a conflict of interest for police, have laws that
prohibit police from directly receiving drug money they seize. Missouri law
generally requires forfeited money to go to public education.

The money involved in the attorney general's lawsuit includes both drug
money seized by police and other types of property, such as unclaimed and
abandoned money. The money is required under state law to go to an
education fund, the county or the state treasury, according to the lawsuit.

Eckold said he will ask the Board of Police Commissioners to hold its
discussion next Tuesday during its regular meeting, which is open to the
public, instead of during the closed session that follows.

"I don't have anything to hide," Eckold said. "We all just want to do the
right thing."

For years the Kansas City Police Department had kept the money addressed by
the lawsuit in a little-known fund and spent it as it deemed necessary.

In 1997, after The Star published a story about the money, Dale Close, the
department's attorney, said state laws were confusing and a judge was
needed to determine where the money was to go. He filed a "friendly"
lawsuit against school districts and officials in four counties, including
all of Jackson, and the offices of the state treasurer and attorney general.

In March of this year, on the day before the department was to produce
documentation in court about the money and property, Close dismissed the case.

Nixon said Monday he was reluctant to file a lawsuit against the
department. Instead, he said, his attorneys and Close agreed to try to
resolve the case without further litigation.

For the next two months, assistant attorneys general tried unsuccessfully
to retrieve documentation about the money and property from Close, Nixon said.

In two letters to Eckold and Close, Nixon details those numerous attempts
by his attorneys.

For example, after the attorney general received inconsistent information
from police, Nixon's attorneys and Close agreed to a telephone conference
call with police personnel. But when the attorneys called, they got Close's
voice mail. They left a message, but Close did not return the call.

"A lot of time, energy and effort has been spent on trying not to sue from
our side," Nixon said.

When the lawsuit was filed Friday it took Eckold and the board by surprise.
Eckold said he never received a letter from Nixon dated June 6 warning of
the lawsuit. Nixon also sent Close a letter.

Close could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

U.S. Justice Department officials have not commented on the forfeiture
controversy since The Star's series was published.

In fact, the Justice Department closed a Sunday forum entitled "New
Developments in Asset Forfeiture" at the National Sheriffs' Association
annual meeting being held in Kansas City.

The sheriff's association said last week the forfeiture forum would be
open, but a reporter was turned away Sunday by association officials who
said the Justice Department had closed it to the public.

Calls to the assistant chief of the Justice Department's money laundering
and asset forfeiture unit, who was scheduled to be on the panel, were not
returned.

To reach Karen Dillon, call (816) 234-4430 or send e-mail to kdillon@kcstar.com