ASSET FORFEITURE ABUSE

Boulder City Official Goes Overboard

Nevada -- Southern Nevada has a new general in the drug war: Boulder City
Attorney David Olsen. And Mr. Olsen isn't concerned about sacrificing
freedom to wage his campaign.

Mr. Olsen is attempting to use the state's civil forfeiture laws to seize
the home of Cynthia Warren, a Boulder City resident who pleaded no contest
to a misdemeanor drug charge for possessing six marijuana plants. Although
Ms. Warren has not been convicted of selling illegal drugs, Mr. Olsen is
convinced she's a six-figure drug dealer with a home-based operation that
threatens his community.

So why isn't Mr. Olsen making sure this 55-year-old woman is locked up with
pushers from the Rollin' 60s and the Kingsmen? Why didn't the city
orchestrate a sting to ensnare this dealer during a big sale? Because the
evidence wasn't there. Although Ms. Warren initially was charged with
felonies of manufacturing and conspiring to sell a controlled substance,
the district attorney's office offered her reduced charges in a plea agreement.

No matter. Mr. Olsen wants her house. "I'm not concerned about the criminal
charges against her," he said. "This doesn't have anything to do with her
criminal case."

Some civil forfeiture laws limit government confiscations to property
purchased with criminal proceeds. But Nevada law allows authorities to also
seize property merely used in the commission of a suspected crime.

And, under Nevada law, Mr. Olsen said the city can keep up to $100,000 from
the forfeiture for narcotics enforcement, with the balance going to the
state. Ms. Warren's attorney, John Lusk, believes she has more than
$300,000 worth of equity in her home.

Unlike criminal proceedings, which place a high burden of proof on the
prosecution and presume defendants are innocent until proven guilty, civil
forfeiture cases force defendants to prove their property is innocent if
they wish to get it back.

"It's a terrible law," said Allen Lichtenstein, an attorney for the
American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada. "Here you have a situation where
the government can seize property by alleging criminal activity, yet he
(Mr. Olsen) says he's not concerned about the criminal charges? . The place
to prove these allegations is in a criminal case, where the defendant
receives due process and reasonable doubt."

Forfeiture laws have been abused in Nevada and elsewhere for years,
allowing authorities to grab homes, cash, cars and other valuable property
from innocent citizens who have never been found guilty of a criminal offense.

In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court held that civil forfeitures are no
different from criminal fines, and financial penalties that are
disproportionate to a crime violate the Eighth Amendment protection against
excessive fines. The notion that Ms. Howard, guilty only of a misdemeanor
pot possession charge, should lose her home and forfeit more than $300,000
is abominable.

Mr. Olsen should drop the civil case. If he won't, District Judge Michael
Cherry should shred it for him. Then lawmakers should reform state
forfeiture laws to prevent such blatant abuses in the future.