SCHOOLS CAN LOSE, EVEN IF THE LAW IS FOLLOWED

Missouri law requires police departments to send drug money they seize
through state courts -- and sometimes police do it.

But even when they do, police have used the court system to get the money
back.

Although that may not be a clear violation of state law, it violates the
intent of sending drug money to state schools, legal experts say.

"They are, in fact, circumventing something that is as important if not
more important than the war on drugs, and that is the education of our
youth," said Larry Schaffer, a defense attorney who also has worked as a
prosecutor.

The law requires police to report seized money to the county prosecutor,
who may choose to file a petition to forfeit the money. The law then allows
a judge to transfer forfeitures to a federal agency, rather than the
schools -- if it appears the case would be better pursued under federal law.

In seven cases The Kansas City Star found in Jackson and Pettis counties,
police turned a total of $263,000 in drug money over to county prosecutors.
In each case, the prosecutor asked a judge to send the money to a federal
agency, which then sent most of it back to police.

None of the documents in the six Jackson County cases outlined why a
federal agency would be better able to handle the case.

Dana Ford's case is typical.

In 1996, Kansas City police, through a confidential informant, made three
drug buys, which led detectives to a house in the 3300 block of Norton
Avenue. Police searched the house, seizing more than $11,000 worth of cash
and other property.

Ford was charged by the Jackson County prosecutor's office and convicted in
Circuit Court of trafficking in drugs.

But the money took a separate route.

Twenty-four days after police searched the house, Kansas City Detective
Steve Christensen contacted assistant prosecutor Melissa Rodriguez.

Christensen told her that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration had
opened an investigation of Ford and that police wanted to transfer the
forfeiture to the DEA, according to court records. (The request did not
comply with state law, which requires police to report a seizure to
prosecutors within four days.)

Rodriguez filed the request with the state court.

Schaffer, Ford's attorney, pointed out in a brief that the prosecutor had
failed to provide any evidence that the case would be better prosecuted
under federal law. There also was no evidence of a DEA investigation, he
wrote.

To allow the transfer "simply because the Kansas City, Missouri, Police
Department... may receive a 'kick-back' from the Federal Government," the
brief said, "circumvents the Missouri Constitution."

But Judge Ronald R. Holliger of the Jackson County Circuit Court signed an
order to transfer most of the forfeiture to the DEA after Ford and the
prosecutor had reached a settlement.

Kansas City police received $7,449. The DEA kept $4,000.

Holliger said it was difficult for him to remember the case, but after
rereading Rodriguez's motion, he thinks he had considered the statement
that the DEA was investigating Ford. He said he did not know that Ford was
being tried in state court, not federal court.

Rodriguez, who now works for the Jackson County counselor's office, said
she would not comment on the case. Christensen did not return phone calls.

Prosecutor Claire McCaskill said the transfer shouldn't have happened.

"If I had been the judge, I would have ruled against my office on that
transfer," she said.

She added, though, that she didn't have time to monitor each of the
hundreds of cases that come through her office each year.

McCaskill did get involved in one strange case.

In 1995 a Kansas City police officer spotted Daniel Gonzales burying
$87,300 in the woods along Cliff Drive. After fighting with police,
Gonzales was charged with misdemeanor assault.

The next day, in a newspaper article about the incident, police said they
had given the money to the FBI because they thought it was linked to drugs.

When McCaskill saw the story, she immediately called police to tell them
they could not just give the money to the FBI.

"I asked them, 'What in the world are the feds doing with that money?' "
McCaskill recalled.

So police simply sent the case through McCaskill's office, which asked a
judge to transfer the money to the FBI. Again, the judge did.

McCaskill said she did not supervise the case, but she speculated that it
might have involved interstate trafficking of drugs.

A year later, Kansas City police got $52,272 back from the FBI, which kept
$35,028.

Continue to Part 4: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n013/a06.html