NEW JERSEY JUDGE RULES FORFEITURE LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) -- A judge has ruled that New Jersey's practice of
letting police and prosecutors keep the money and assets they seize is
unconstitutional, putting a halt -- for now -- to a system criticized as
bounty hunting.

The practice gives law enforcement a stake in the cash, cars, computers and
other property seized from criminals and suspects.

"The decision will ensure that police and prosecutors make decisions on the
basis of justice, not on the potential for profit," said lawyer Scott
Bullock, who represented a former sheriff's deputy whose son was caught
selling marijuana out of her car.

The state plans to appeal Wednesday's ruling and ask the judge to allow the
continued distribution of seized assets, which amounted to nearly $32
million in a two-year period ending in 2000.

"Civil and criminal forfeiture is a legitimate law enforcement tool that
allows police and prosecutors to take the profit out of crime," said John
Hagerty, a spokesman for the state Division of Criminal Justice.

Carol Thomas, 45, who was never charged, said she didn't know her
17-year-old son had used her car to drive to drug deals. He pleaded guilty
and was sentenced to house arrest.

But the state filed a complaint against the car (State of New Jersey v. One
1990 Ford Thunderbird) and seized it, even though no drugs were found in it
and it wasn't actually used in the deals.

Thomas sued to get it back and after it was returned, she sued the state,
challenging the constitutionality of civil forfeiture statutes.

The judge ruled the seizures give law enforcement financial interests which
are not free of "the taint of impermissible bias in enforcement of the laws."

"It was worth sticking it out," Thomas said. "I got my car back, but maybe
this will help somebody else."