APPEALS COURT: CASH WITH DRUG RESIDUE CAN BE SEIZED

Harrisburg - Cash with far-higher-than-normal trace levels of cocaine
can be seized as illegal drug proceeds if found in vehicles pulled
over for speeding, Commonwealth Court ruled yesterday.

The 4-3 ruling concerned the seizure of $451,000 during separate
vehicle stops in Somerset and Cumberland Counties by state police on
the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 2002 and 2004 in which no drugs or
paraphernalia were found and no criminal charges were filed.

The majority opinion by Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt said the amount of
money, the way it was bundled, the amount of drug residue found on
the bills, and suspicions about the stories told by the vehicle
occupants all helped link the money to drug trafficking.

A dissenting judge, Rochelle S. Friedman, called the ion-scan test
used to detect cocaine traces on the bills "nothing more than junk
science" as it was performed in the two cases.