SCHOOLS TO GET SEIZED DRUG MONEY

Judge Rules Police Can't Keep $34,000 Recently Found In Evidence Vault

ELIZABETH CITY (AP) - The $34,000 found recently in a police evidence vault
belongs to the local school system and not to the police department, a
judge has ruled.

Superior Court Judge Richard Parker ruled Tuesday that the money, believed
to have been confiscated from drug dealers, belongs to the Elizabeth
City-Pasquotank school systems. The decision overruled his earlier ruling
that the Elizabeth City Police Department could use the money to buy
evidence tracking software and investigate drug crimes.

The state constitution provides that penalties, forfeitures and fines
collected for penal crimes must be used by the public schools in the
counties where the crimes occurred.

District Attorney Frank Parrish argued that the money was not collected
from court-imposed fines but as evidence. Therefore, the money can be
disposed of in any way a judge or magistrate sees fit, he said.

However, the attorney for the Board of Education, L.P. Hornthal Jr., argued
that the seized property amounted to drug forfeitures.

The money turned up when the Elizabeth City Police Department took an
inventory of evidence in the vault. They uncovered a total of $34,677 in
cash, believed to have been confiscated during drug seizures dating back to
1989, when the last inventory was taken.