LAWSUIT SEEKS RETURN OF MONEY SEIZED IN POLICE RAID

It seemed clear enough.

During a raid on Vincent Karpierz's Clay County house last year,
Kansas City police discovered $33,000 along with marijuana and a
small-caliber handgun.

According to the April 20, 1998, sworn statement of Kansas City
Detective Gary Gibson, "I took into my possession" the cash and other
property.

Not so, said a Kansas City Police Department attorney. During a
hearing Thursday in Clay County Circuit Court, he said the Kansas City
police never had possession of the money. It was the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration that seized the cash, he said.

"A large contradiction in the facts," said Circuit Judge David
Russell. He predicted this case could find its way to the state
appeals court and perhaps clarify a law concerning confiscation of
criminals' cash and property.

The lawsuit against the Police Department was brought by Karpierz, who
ended up pleading guilty in December in state court to a possession
charge. He is serving a five-year sentence in a Missouri prison.

This would appear to be a state case in which state forfeiture laws
would apply, said his attorney, Jim McMullin.

"It was not a federal operation as the evidence will show," McMullin
said. "They illegally gave it to the feds....It is simply money
laundering."

If so, he argued, the money should be returned.

"The police never had the money," said Robert Schieber, the police
attorney. "They never took the money. They never had possession of the
money."

The case applies to a dispute, reported in January by The Kansas City
Star, over whether Missouri police are skirting state laws, with the
help of federal agencies, and keeping millions of dollars in
confiscated drug money.

By involving a federal agency, local police can get back up to 80
percent of the proceeds.

State law prohibits local police from transferring the seized money to
a federal agency. Instead it is supposed to go through circuit court
where a judge decides how the money is to be distributed, usually to
education funds.

Federal guidelines also say that if a case is tried in state court,
any seized cash and property should follow the criminal case.

The Kansas City police and the DEA did not comment on the
case.

"My first impression is we've got some interesting issues here," said
Russell during the hearing in Liberty. He said he would schedule a
nonjury trial, probably in a month.

The hearing occurred the same day as an announcement from leaders of
the General Assembly that a committee was named to study the question
of asset forfeitures, the legal term for the official taking of
property and cash involved with drug crimes.

For a decade the legislature has fought to try to send confiscated
drug money to education because of a philosophy against police units
generating revenue. Lawmakers say that allowing police to keep the
proceeds of drug money could lead to serious problems, such as illegal
searches and seizures.

Police records and evidence offered in the hearing show that in March
1998, Kansas City police got a tip that Karpierz was selling drugs
from his home at 5208 N. Wheeling Ave. Police put the house under
surveillance for three weeks.

The raid occurred April 17. One police report said Kansas City Police
Sgt. Joseph Wellington found the $33,000 in a wooden box. About the
same time, Karpierz was arrested in his car by another Kansas City
officer, who found an additional $1,029 and a small amount of marijuana.

Three days later, Gibson filed a document in Clay County Circuit Court
that listed all the property, including the $33,000, seized in the
raid. Gibson filled out and signed a printed form that stated "I
discovered the following property described in said warrant which I
then and there took into my possession."

The police reports give no indication that any DEA agents were on the
scene or involved in the investigation at any stage. But they do
mention that two DEA Task Force officers arrived at the scene.

Although not federal agents, these officers of local police
departments are deputized by the DEA as part of a pool of drug
investigators. The Kansas City police turned the money over to them.

On the same day of the raid, Kansas City police also filled out a
DAG-71 report, asking the DEA to take or "adopt" the cash.

In the same document they also asked the DEA to return 63 percent of
the money, or more than $21,000. They noted that the Kansas City
police had "originated" the information leading to the seizure.

"The Kansas City police violated the statutes and they do that, judge,
so that they can send it to the feds and then get it back and use it
for their own purpose," McMullin said Thursday during the hearing.

Insisting it was a federal investigation, Schieber said, "The feds had
possession the whole time."
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To Reach Karen Dillon, Projects Reporter, Call (816) 234-4430 Or Send
E-mail To Kdillon@Kcstar.com