EDITORIAL: AMEND CIVIL FORFEITURE

An important issue comes up before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
this week that should be of concern to every American. But Republican
Sens. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Spencer Abraham of Michigan are,
mysteriously, sitting on the fence.

The legislation is the Hatch-Leahy bill, which limits federal police
powers in civil forfeitures. A House bill with many of the same
provisions has passed overwhelmingly; all but two of the Ohio
delegation voted for it.

What people of all political persuasions are agreed on is that the
current civil forfeiture law has given federal agents and police power
to abuse American citizens, a power they've not been lax in
exercising. It has thus corrupted police agencies and hurt the trust
of Americans in them.

The law lets agents grab property, personal and real, by claiming it
was attained with ill-gotten gains or, in the case of a home or a car,
that it was used in illegal transactions. There is no hearing. There
are no lawyers named for indigents. Average Americans must pay to
prove themselves not guilty, a process few can afford. That's
un-American.

As a result of this law, a Washington, D.C. woman of 72 lost her home,
she testified, after her nephew, staying with her overnight, was
charged with drug dealing on the word of an informant who described a
transaction years before on her front porch.

The corruption and abuse of government enforcers in forfeitures has
been reported nationwide for about a decade. Because they get to keep
what they seize for "law enforcement" purposes, federal agents and
others have indulged in what to most people looks like legal theft.

One of the worst stories involved a 61-year-old California millionaire
whom federal agents shot and killed on his 200-acre ranch. They'd
burst in on him with a warrant based on a report that he grew
marijuana. Later the warrant was found to be replete with
misstatements and omissions. The district attorney of Ventura County
concluded the lawmen just wanted to grab his property.

The Hatch-Leahy bill, which has powerful supporters on both sides of
the aisle, would raise the standard under which property can be seized
to require showing of "a preponderance of evidence," not suspicion or
allegation. A tad tighter than the House bill that guarantees legal
counsel to indigent people whose property is seized, the Senate
version would do it only if there were a concurrent criminal case
against the property owner. The House version is better.

Success or failure rests with fence straddlers, so Senators DeWine and
Abraham are key. We strongly urge their support for this important
measure.