DISPUTED PAYBACK ON SEIZED CASH RAISES STAKES IN CRITTENDEN

Arrested on a money-laundering charge, Jose Antonio Cardenas spent 276 days
in the Crittenden County Detention Center.

During that time and without his knowledge, his truck and cash were
officially confiscated by court order.

Only then did authorities let him out of jail and drop the charge against him.

Now a judge has ordered his cash returned to him. The problem is law
enforcement authorities are divided over who should pay up.

The latest controversy over cash seized from the interstates in Crittenden
County comes amid an ongoing federal probe into whether officers involved
in drug interdiction are skimming some of the money they confiscate.

Three West Memphis officers were fired last year for violating policies
regarding seized money from suspected cash couriers, including the officer
who stopped Cardenas in November 2000 for speeding on Interstate 40.

While Cardenas, 29, stewed in the Crittenden County lock up, Marion lawyer
James C. Hale III, acting as an outside civil lawyer for the local
prosecuting attorney's office, sent certified letters to his home in
Weslaco, Texas. The letters asked if Cardenas wanted to claim ownership of
a 1984 Chevy truck and the $3,900 in cash taken from him by West Memphis
police. (Cardenas says it was actually $4,000.)

Although he was in jail just down the street, nobody thought to serve the
prisoner with a copy of the suit.

"I was not aware he was in jail," Hale said Thursday. "It's just that simple."

Since Cardenas never responded, Circuit Judge David Burnett entered a
default judgment last June, giving his cash and truck to prosecutors.

It looked like the conclusion of yet another of the routine civil
forfeiture lawsuits Hale has filed over the years. Most of those assets are
forfeited to the Crittenden County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, where
Hale's father, James C. Hale Jr., is a longtime deputy prosecutor. But in
March Circuit Judge Victor Hill set aside Burnett's ruling, saying it was
"inadvertently entered" because Cardenas had never been properly served. On
May 10, Hill ordered Cardenas's money returned to him.

It was a nice way of saying that somebody made a big mistake.

But by then 60 percent of the money had made its way to the West Memphis
Police Department. The money went to the department because former
patrolman Joey Applegate made the original traffic stop.

In the asset forfeiture formula, another 20 percent was to go to the
Crittenden County Prosecuting Attorney's Office and 20 percent to the state
crime lab.

West Memphis City Atty. David Peeples said prosecutors last week asked for
his help in returning the money so they can comply with Hill's order. But
Peeples says it's not fair for the city to pay for the prosecutor's mistake.

"I don't see how we can return anything," Peeples said. "I don't have any
intent to recommend we return any money."

Peeples said he questions whether Hill had jurisdiction to set aside a
default judgment almost 11 months after it was entered, particularly the
way he did it. The order gives Cardenas the $3,900 but lets prosecutors
keep his truck, which was sold the following day, May 11, at a public
auction for $2,000, records show.

"If (Burnett's) order wasn't any good the whole order wasn't any good,"
said Peeples.

And since West Memphis wasn't a party to the negotiated agreement, Peeples
doesn't feel obligated to hand over the dough.

"It doesn't pass the smell test," he said. "Are they ask ing for the crime
lab to return their money?"

Crime lab executive director James T. Clark in Little Rock this week said
he has not been asked to return any money forfeited to a special revenue
fund for that purpose, and he hadn't heard about the issue.

Court and police records indicate Cardenas was pulled over for speeding on
westbound I-40 on Nov. 28, 2000, and signed a consent for his truck to be
searched.

When Applegate found a hidden compartment, Cardenas told him he didn't know
how to open it. The gold pickup was taken to the police department and
Cardenas was arrested.

But in handwritten motions in the criminal court file, Cardenas sought to
suppress evidence that a "green leafy substance" was found in the truck
because, by the time it was discovered, he was no longer present. He wasn't
charged with speeding or with possession of marijuana, records indicate.

"The officer stated that he tested the green leafy substance at the scene
and it tested positive for marijuana. Remember: the compartment was never
opened at the scene or in my prescence (sic)," he wrote.

Applegate was later fired, in part for saying a green leafy substance was
found in a truck he pulled over in March 2001 in which he also found a
large amount of cash. The trouble was, the FBI had put the money in that
truck as part of a sting operation, and there was no marijuana present.

That case was part of a federal investigation of the drug interdiction
program in Crittenden County.

In another instance, money counted by the FBI and seized by West Memphis
Sgt. E. A. 'Tony' Bradley on the parking lot of the Southland Greyhound
Park, came up short, according to West Memphis personnel records. Bradley
also stated in a July 2001 report that a green leafy substance was
collected from that vehicle, although the undercover FBI vehicle didn't
contain even the residue of a controlled substance, according to records.
Bradley also was fired.

The westbound lanes of traffic through Crittenden County are known as "the
money route" for couriers bringing home the proceeds of drug deals in the
East. In the past 2d years authorities have confiscated $5.4 million in
cash in Crittenden County, just more than half the cash seized statewide.

By contrast, Shelby County drug interdiction efforts have confiscated about
$2.3 million in the same period, said Asst. Dist. Atty. Gen. Bobby Carter.

Cardenas was ordered released Aug. 31 because of a state law that frees
defendants if they're not brought to trial within nine months. On Nov. 6
all charges were dropped by Dep. Pros. Atty. Lindsey Fairley.

Part of the agreement signed by Cardenas's lawyer, Thomas A. Young, says
his client won't sue prosecutors or state agents over their handling of the
case.

Young said he expects to get his client's money.