SUIT SEEKS BAIL MONEY SEIZED FOR DRUG SCENT

Waukesha - The Waukesha County Sheriff's Department should release
$25,000 seized when a trained dog detected the smell of narcotics on
the cash after it was posted as bail for a man arrested on drug
charges, the man's lawyer contends in a lawsuit filed Monday.

According to attorney Donna J. Kuchler, the money was paid by
acquaintances of Fidel Ortega Robles last month, and deputies at the
Waukesha County Jail conducted the investigation with the
drug-sniffing dog because it was cash.

That type of seizure is illegal, according to Kuchler, because dog
sniff tests are not credible evidence of illegal drug sales or use.
She said nothing has been established to link Robles or those who
posted the cash, who Kuchler said were "friends and relatives," to the
money or to any crime.

Kuchler filed the lawsuit in Waukesha County Circuit Court. It asks
for a hearing on her request to have the seized funds released, which
was set for Aug. 26 before Waukesha County Circuit Judge Mark S. Gempeler.

Robles, 50, was arrested last winter in Illinois on a Wisconsin
warrant alleging cocaine trafficking charges that was issued against
him in Waukesha County Circuit Court in October 2001. On July 12, bail
for Robles was set at $25,000, an amount subsequently posted to gain
his release but eventually seized, according to court records.

Kuchler says in the petition filed Monday that federal court rulings
have "held that law enforcement officials are prohibited from seizing
funds based primarily on the fact that a person has a large sum of
cash, even where a drug dog sniff has detected residue."

Robles "remains incarcerated for no other reason than that a drug dog
picked up cocaine traces on six of the many bills submitted as part of
the petitioner's bail payment," Kuchler says.

A spokesman for the Sheriff's Department did not return a call Monday
seeking comment on the seizure.

Robles is due to return to court on Aug. 23 on the cocaine charges. He
remained in custody in the jail Monday.