FORFEITURE ABUSES MUST BE CURBED

IN THE goofy comedy Dude, Where's My Car? two slackers spend an entire
movie searching for the car they misplaced after a hard night of partying.
Jose Antonio Cardenas could ask the same question, although there is
nothing funny about his plight.

Cardenas, 29, spent 276 days in the Crittenden County Detention Center on a
money-laundering charge that was eventually dropped. When he was finally
released, he discovered West Memphis prosecutors had seized his pickup
truck and the cash he was carrying at the time of his arrest.

Now Cardenas's lawyer is trying to get his client's money back - so far
without success. The situation is another example of apparent abuse of
forfeiture powers police officers can exercise in suspected drug cases.

In concept, seizing money and other assets from drug dealers is a great
idea. In the war on drugs, it makes perfect sense to use the bad guys'
ill-gotten resources against them. Drug dealers' money can buy much-needed
equipment to help police.

Yet seizure laws have led to numerous controversies involving law
enforcement agencies across the Mid-South. In Crittenden County, more than
$5.4 million in cash has been seized over the past 2 1/2years - more than
half of the total seized in Arkansas.

Most asset forfeiture cases along interstate highways in Crittenden County
involve couriers with Spanish surnames who have signed prepared forms
disavowing knowledge of contraband police find during vehicle searches.
Many drivers are given only traffic citations and sent on their way,
leaving the seized spoils behind for police to divvy up.

The Cardenas case has several troubling aspects. A Hispanic driver with
out-of-state license plates, Cardenas could have been a victim of racial
profiling.

When Cardenas was pulled over for speeding along Interstate 40 in 2000, the
arresting officer reported finding a "green leafy substance" in his truck.
Cardenas protested to a judge that the evidence should be thrown out
because he was no longer at the scene when officers allegedly found the
substance.

The arresting officer, West Memphis patrolman Joseph Applegate, was later
fired - in part for claiming to have found traces of marijuana during a
similar traffic stop last year. In that case, he stopped a vehicle that not
only was drug-free, but also was being used by FBI agents in a sting operation.

Perhaps the biggest blunder in the Cardenas case involved local prosecutors
who moved to seize his cash and truck. They sent a certified letter to his
home in Texas, asking whether he wanted to claim his property. At the time,
he was sitting in jail just down the street from the prosecutor's office.
How prosecutors could move to seize funds or property without knowing the
status of the case seems unfathomable.

Cardenas was released last August because of a state law that frees
defendants who aren't put on trial within nine months. A judge initially
allowed the money and truck to be seized while Cardenas was imprisoned, but
another judge later ordered $3,900 returned to Cardenas, who said he had
been carrying $4,000.

The judge's order didn't require compensation for the truck, which
prosecutors sold at a public auction for $2,000. Under the forfeiture law
formula, 60 percent of the money went to the West Memphis police, 20
percent to the Crittenden County Prosecuting Attorney's Office and 20
percent to the state crime lab. The crime lab's executive director said
last week that no one has asked him to return the money.

West Memphis City Atty. David Peeples said his community isn't responsible
because prosecutors made a mistake. Since West Memphis wasn't a party to
the agreement negotiated with the judge, Peeples said, the city shouldn't
have to give back its share of the funds.

"It doesn't pass the smell test," Peeples said of the judge's order. But
neither does the way police and prosecutors have handled this case.
Somebody needs to cut Cardenas a check.