POLICE DON'T HAVE TO REPAY MONEY SEIZED IN DRUG BUST, JUDGE RULES

Police don't have to repay the money they seized in a drug bust from a
Kansas City man, a Clay County Circuit judge ruled Thursday.

The decision came out of a lawsuit by Vincent Karpierz after police
investigated him for drugs and served a state search warrant on his home,
finding $33,000. The police turned the money over to the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration to be forfeited.

Karpierz claimed that because Kansas City police seized the money, the
forfeiture had to go through state court.

Under state law, police usually would receive none of the forfeiture back.
Instead, the money generally goes to education. But under federal law, as
in this case, the police can receive up to 80 percent of the forfeiture back.

Judge David Russell said that because police handed the money to two Kansas
law enforcement officers who were deputized federal agents, it became a
federal case.

"It's a method of getting around Missouri statutes," Russell said of police
giving the money to a federal agency.

But he added, "I believe they have the authority to take the money."

Jim McMullin, Karpierz's attorney, said that he did not believe the judge
had a clear understanding of Missouri laws and that he would appeal the
decision within 10 days.

Under Missouri law, state or local officers who are deputized by a federal
agency are still required to follow state law when they seize property in a
state investigation.

The law also says police cannot transfer any property they seize to the
federal government until it is approved by a prosecutor and judge.

However, police testified Thursday that they had not seized the money for
forfeiture. They said they had only recovered the money and once they
called the deputized Kansas officers, those officers seized it for forfeiture.

The judge agreed and added that once the Kansas officers had the money it
was no longer in the state's jurisdiction.

Missouri lawmakers have said they want to define a seizure as occurring
when police discover and exercise control over property. The General
Assembly is currently considering a forfeiture reform bill that would
reduce the flow of drug money seizures to the federal government and back
to local police.

Of the $33,000 in the Karpierz case, the Kansas City police got 63 percent,
or about $23,000. For picking up the money, the two agencies that the
Kansas deputized officers work for received about $3,400. The DEA received
$6,600.

According to court records, police got a tip in late March 1998 that
Karpierz was dealing drugs from his home. Kansas City police officers
testified they had the house under surveillance for three weeks, then went
to a Clay County Circuit Judge and got a search warrant.

When a team of Kansas City officers searched the home and found the money,
they called Detective Steven Espeer of the police asset forfeiture squad.

Espeer testified that he decided the money should be turned over to the
DEA, but it wasn't so that Kansas City police could get the money back.

He said the reason was that there had been "no successful forfeiture
judgments in Clay County since I can remember. It is accepted procedure to
contact the DEA."

Karpierz pleaded guilty in the drug case and is serving a state prison term.