RULING PAVES WAY FOR BARTON COUNTY COUPLE TO SEEK RETURN OF MONEY

A case that was the foundation last year for a Barton County lawsuit
seeking the return of drug forfeiture money has been affirmed by the state
appeals court. The Kansas City, Mo., Police Department has been ordered to
return $34,000, plus interest, to convicted drug user Vincent Karpierz.

The case also paves the way for Kevin and Nancy Peterson, a rural Barton
County couple seeking compensation for the loss of their 80-acre family
farm, which was seized by federal agents following a sheriff's and Highway
Patrol raid on their home on Aug. 31, 1998.

In the Kansas City case, money was seized during a police search of
Karpierz' Clay County home in 1998. Marijuana was also found, and the cash
was seized under federal forfeiture laws and handed off to federal drug agents.

A detective with the Kansas City Police Department said the department
preferred federal forfeiture to Missouri's Criminal Activity Forfeiture Act
(CAFA), according to the appeals court opinion.

Under federal forfeiture law guidelines, which allow local authorities to
keep up to 80 percent of forfeited drug money, more than $21,000 of the
Karpierz money was returned to the police department, with federal
authorities keeping the rest. Had authorities filed under the state
forfeiture law, all of the seized money would be intended for public education.

Karpierz is serving a five-year sentence on the drug conviction in state
prison.

The suit seeking recovery of Karpierz' money was brought by Kansas City,
Mo., attorney Jim McMullin, who contended that authorities had improperly
seized the cash in order to circumvent the state law and allow the police
department to keep most of it.

Karpierz lost his case in trial court, but in November 2000 the appeals
court ruled that police can't turn over drug money to federal authorities
without a court order. The case was sent back down for trial, Karpierz won,
and then the Kansas City police appealed the ruling.

On Wednesday, the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, affirmed the
lower court decision.

"We've opened a can of worms," McMullin, 75, said Friday. "We're making law
left and right, and so far it's all been for the good."

McMullin said that police must follow the law, just as citizens are
required to do.

The ruling paves the way for two class-action suits and a half-dozen
individual forfeiture cases that McMullin has filed across the state, he said.

The Barton County raid netted five patches of marijuana, which Kevin
Peterson claimed he was growing to help his wife combat the side effects of
cancer chemotherapy and severe depression.

The Petersons pleaded guilty to felony charges in federal court and were
placed on probation.

McMullin said the Peterson home was sold at auction, but that he couldn't
recall the sale price. Authorities said previously, however, that they had
expected to net around $40,000 from the sale, once the mortgages were
satisfied.

The Peterson case, and others McMullin has filed across Missouri, have been
"hanging fire" pending the latest appeals court decision on Karpierz, he said.

Depositions have not yet been taken in the Peterson case, which names the
Barton County Sheriff's Department as a defendant, but McMullin said he
expects things to move quickly now, with the case coming to trial as early
as March or April.

With 9 percent interest since the time of the seizure, Karpierz will
recover about $46,000.