10-22-2006, 01:08 PM
BRADENTON -- For years, the Bradenton Police Department has quietly, without judicial review, confiscated hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and property from people they arrested for drug possession and other crimes.
The police bypass the courts and confiscate money and property on the spot through a department-created form called the "Contraband Forfeiture Agreement." By signing it, a person agrees to relinquish their property to the police and waive any rights they have to try to get it back through the courts.
In some cases -- including one last year where police seized more than $43,000 from a man during a traffic stop -- people have signed over cash and other property without ever getting charged with a crime.
The cash and revenue from other forfeited property, such as cars, DVDs and TVs, go into a police bank account and is spent on equipment, drug abuse prevention and community-based programs. The bank account has reached $150,000 in recent years.
Attorneys and constitutional law scholars say they are concerned Bradenton police may be pressuring people to sign away property -- and their legal rights -- without an attorney. State laws under the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act say a person is entitled to have a judge, not a police officer, determine the merits of forfeiture :roll: .
"Who knows what they are telling people to get them to sign it," said Sarasota-based defense attorney Henry E. Lee, who represented a woman last year in a police forfeiture case in Bradenton. "This is a source of revenue for the police, and it's just rife for abuse."
A Manatee County judge last year found fault with the department's forfeiture procedure in a case where police took more than $7,000 from a woman arrested for a driver's license violation after a traffic stop.
Judge Douglas Henderson said Jicela Baneles, 28, did not knowingly and willingly agree to give up her money -- despite the appearance of her name on the department's forfeiture agreement.
Police were ordered to return the money.
Bradenton Police Chief Michael Radzilowski said Henderson did not dismiss the agreement itself in the Baneles case.
"He didn't say the written agreement wasn't any good," Radzilowski said. "If the courts say we're doing something improper or illegal, we'll change it."
The contraband agreement, which purports to be a binding, legal document, is expected to become the centerpiece of a court fight in Manatee County. A lawsuit filed this week challenges the legitimacy of the forfeiture document.
The case is rooted in the police seizure of $10,020 from a 20-year-old Orlando man, Delane N. Johnson, in July.
Johnson, questioned amid a robbery investigation, was arrested on a rarely used charge of failing to report a business transaction that exceeds $10,000.
But prosecutors said it's not a crime to carry that amount of cash, and the state dropped the charge in August.
Johnson, police say, signed away his rights to the cash and authorities deposited the money in a police account within a week of the arrest.
Police say it will take a court order to get them to return Johnson's cash.
Johnson's attorneys want a judge to force the police department to use the courts in forfeiture cases and to stop negotiating with people as they are arrested.
Bradenton is the only law enforcement agency in the area that doesn't file its forfeiture complaints in court to initiate proceedings.
"Hopefully, we'll put a stop to it when we get in front of a judge," said attorney Louis Daniel Lazaro, who represents Johnson. "There are possible corruption charges on a criminal level."
Police dismiss any notion that they are bullying people into signing away cash and property.
Radzilowski defends the practice, saying a person has a right to decide how to dispose of their property.
"People involved in crime are more apt to walk away from the money," the chief said. "We're not looking to take money from innocent people. We're only trying to take the profit out of the narcotics business."
Radzilowski said very few people who contest forfeiture actually win in court.
Johnson isn't the first person who later had second thoughts about signing their property away, Radzilowski said.
"This is not the first, and it won't be the last legal fight," Radzilowski said.
The bulk of Bradenton's forfeiture cases involve cash and property worth between $50 and $5,000, but occasionally the bounty can be much higher.
In two cases alone last year, police seized more than $100,000.
Police stopped Ezequiel Maldonado for a traffic violation in January 2005 and ended up taking $43,551 from him through a contraband agreement. Court records show Maldonado, 47, was not charged with a crime.
Benji Ackerman Jr., 34, was part of a cocaine distribution ring that city police dismantled last year. Ackerman got an 18-year federal prison sentence in June.
City police got $62,760 from him before he was put away.
Bradenton police reports show that officers have seized $12,638 from 15 people since early August. Most of the people were arrested on drug-related charges.
Janie Brooks, 56, was in her front yard when police swooped in last month to target an area fraught with drug sales.
Brooks was arrested when investigators said they found drugs, and her car and cash were seized.
The incident, Brooks said, happened in a flash, and while she sat in the back of a police cruiser an officer prodded her until she signed over about $1,200 to the Bradenton Police Department.
She said she had no idea what she was signing -- only that police told her that "things would go a lot smoother" if she signed it.
"He kept rushing me, like, 'Go ahead, things will be better if you did,'" Brooks said. "It was like, there's gonna be some big time stuff that happens to me if I don't sign it."
Bradenton resident Travis M. Hickman was arrested this month in a drug investigation and taken to police headquarters, but he was released without being charged with a crime.
Police said they saw Hickman throw two pieces of crack cocaine from a car window one evening in the 2600 block of 9th Street West.
Hickman, 21, who has a record of drug-related crimes, was searched for drugs. An officer dug into a pocket and pulled out cash.
"This is drug money. This is drug money," Hickman recalled an officer tell him, holding his cash.
"They went all up in my pockets. I didn't have no dope on me that day."
An officer put the "white, small objects that appeared to be crack cocaine" into a bag and placed it into the property department, according to police reports.
"They are arresting me but trying to tell me I know somebody. They wanted me to set someone up," said Hickman, who denied throwing anything out of the car window. "They said they would issue a warrant for my arrest."
Police took $30 from Hickman, according to the Contraband Forfeiture Agreement he signed.
Hickman is adamant that police took more money -- two $50s that were not reported in the agreement.
Hickman also insists the only document he signed is a sheet on which Miranda Rights were printed.
The police bypass the courts and confiscate money and property on the spot through a department-created form called the "Contraband Forfeiture Agreement." By signing it, a person agrees to relinquish their property to the police and waive any rights they have to try to get it back through the courts.
In some cases -- including one last year where police seized more than $43,000 from a man during a traffic stop -- people have signed over cash and other property without ever getting charged with a crime.
The cash and revenue from other forfeited property, such as cars, DVDs and TVs, go into a police bank account and is spent on equipment, drug abuse prevention and community-based programs. The bank account has reached $150,000 in recent years.
Attorneys and constitutional law scholars say they are concerned Bradenton police may be pressuring people to sign away property -- and their legal rights -- without an attorney. State laws under the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act say a person is entitled to have a judge, not a police officer, determine the merits of forfeiture :roll: .
"Who knows what they are telling people to get them to sign it," said Sarasota-based defense attorney Henry E. Lee, who represented a woman last year in a police forfeiture case in Bradenton. "This is a source of revenue for the police, and it's just rife for abuse."
A Manatee County judge last year found fault with the department's forfeiture procedure in a case where police took more than $7,000 from a woman arrested for a driver's license violation after a traffic stop.
Judge Douglas Henderson said Jicela Baneles, 28, did not knowingly and willingly agree to give up her money -- despite the appearance of her name on the department's forfeiture agreement.
Police were ordered to return the money.
Bradenton Police Chief Michael Radzilowski said Henderson did not dismiss the agreement itself in the Baneles case.
"He didn't say the written agreement wasn't any good," Radzilowski said. "If the courts say we're doing something improper or illegal, we'll change it."
The contraband agreement, which purports to be a binding, legal document, is expected to become the centerpiece of a court fight in Manatee County. A lawsuit filed this week challenges the legitimacy of the forfeiture document.
The case is rooted in the police seizure of $10,020 from a 20-year-old Orlando man, Delane N. Johnson, in July.
Johnson, questioned amid a robbery investigation, was arrested on a rarely used charge of failing to report a business transaction that exceeds $10,000.
But prosecutors said it's not a crime to carry that amount of cash, and the state dropped the charge in August.
Johnson, police say, signed away his rights to the cash and authorities deposited the money in a police account within a week of the arrest.
Police say it will take a court order to get them to return Johnson's cash.
Johnson's attorneys want a judge to force the police department to use the courts in forfeiture cases and to stop negotiating with people as they are arrested.
Bradenton is the only law enforcement agency in the area that doesn't file its forfeiture complaints in court to initiate proceedings.
"Hopefully, we'll put a stop to it when we get in front of a judge," said attorney Louis Daniel Lazaro, who represents Johnson. "There are possible corruption charges on a criminal level."
Police dismiss any notion that they are bullying people into signing away cash and property.
Radzilowski defends the practice, saying a person has a right to decide how to dispose of their property.
"People involved in crime are more apt to walk away from the money," the chief said. "We're not looking to take money from innocent people. We're only trying to take the profit out of the narcotics business."
Radzilowski said very few people who contest forfeiture actually win in court.
Johnson isn't the first person who later had second thoughts about signing their property away, Radzilowski said.
"This is not the first, and it won't be the last legal fight," Radzilowski said.
The bulk of Bradenton's forfeiture cases involve cash and property worth between $50 and $5,000, but occasionally the bounty can be much higher.
In two cases alone last year, police seized more than $100,000.
Police stopped Ezequiel Maldonado for a traffic violation in January 2005 and ended up taking $43,551 from him through a contraband agreement. Court records show Maldonado, 47, was not charged with a crime.
Benji Ackerman Jr., 34, was part of a cocaine distribution ring that city police dismantled last year. Ackerman got an 18-year federal prison sentence in June.
City police got $62,760 from him before he was put away.
Bradenton police reports show that officers have seized $12,638 from 15 people since early August. Most of the people were arrested on drug-related charges.
Janie Brooks, 56, was in her front yard when police swooped in last month to target an area fraught with drug sales.
Brooks was arrested when investigators said they found drugs, and her car and cash were seized.
The incident, Brooks said, happened in a flash, and while she sat in the back of a police cruiser an officer prodded her until she signed over about $1,200 to the Bradenton Police Department.
She said she had no idea what she was signing -- only that police told her that "things would go a lot smoother" if she signed it.
"He kept rushing me, like, 'Go ahead, things will be better if you did,'" Brooks said. "It was like, there's gonna be some big time stuff that happens to me if I don't sign it."
Bradenton resident Travis M. Hickman was arrested this month in a drug investigation and taken to police headquarters, but he was released without being charged with a crime.
Police said they saw Hickman throw two pieces of crack cocaine from a car window one evening in the 2600 block of 9th Street West.
Hickman, 21, who has a record of drug-related crimes, was searched for drugs. An officer dug into a pocket and pulled out cash.
"This is drug money. This is drug money," Hickman recalled an officer tell him, holding his cash.
"They went all up in my pockets. I didn't have no dope on me that day."
An officer put the "white, small objects that appeared to be crack cocaine" into a bag and placed it into the property department, according to police reports.
"They are arresting me but trying to tell me I know somebody. They wanted me to set someone up," said Hickman, who denied throwing anything out of the car window. "They said they would issue a warrant for my arrest."
Police took $30 from Hickman, according to the Contraband Forfeiture Agreement he signed.
Hickman is adamant that police took more money -- two $50s that were not reported in the agreement.
Hickman also insists the only document he signed is a sheet on which Miranda Rights were printed.