Posted on 01/12/2002 8:17:18 PM PST by NC_Libertarian
Police have long had the right under state and federal law to seize property if they can show it's linked to the illegal drug trade. Athens-Clarke police have rarely moved to commandeer a house.
Thursday, they seized a west Athens house owned by an 82-year-old widow neighbors call ''Ma,'' claiming she was knowingly letting her son use the property as a staging site for drug sales. Police predicted more home forfeitures, as they look for fresh ways to end open drug dealing that still troubles some Athens neighborhoods.
''This community is why we're here today -- it's part of our problem-solving approach to policing the community,'' said Mike Hunsinger of the Athens-Clarke Police Drug and Vice Squad. ''I think we're going to see more of it.''
Fannie Gresham's attorney, Jim Smith, likened the police action to the widespread illegal theft of African-American real estate that tarnishes America's past. ''What they're doing is taking property from black folks,'' he said. ''They don't attack white folks.''
Under the watchful eyes of neighbors, officers entered the tiny Julius Drive home of Gresham and changed the locks. Police on Thursday also arrested Gresham's son, Tommie ''Top Dollar'' Gresham, 50, on a cocaine possession charge after he allegedly dropped several rocks of crack cocaine and fled the scene, returning later while police were still there.
His mother was at the hospital visiting a sick relative during the police operation, according to her attorney, who accused police of confiscating the home of an innocent old woman. Neighbors described her as a kindly lady who walked to a nearby church every Sunday for services.
''Right here is a good example of the state taking property'' without evidence, Smith said, videotaping the operation from the street. ''There's not any drugs in this house. They have never seized any drugs in this house. This lady is not accused of a single thing.'' The police complaint alleged the senior Gresham facilitated her son's alleged operation by allowing the house to become a hub of drug activity. Some 29 incidents of drug activity have been noted at the address there since 1992, records show.
Police were armed with a court order issued by Superior Court Judge Stephen Boswell, who heard evidence in December of alleged drug activity at the property. Police say drug dealers were caught numerous times by police fetching drugs from the house for street-side sales, and running after cars to sell drugs to motorists.
Boswell gave Gresham 14 days to move her belongings. A hearing on the seizure is scheduled for February in Clarke Superior Court. Boswell signed the order as a visiting judge after the Western Judicial Circuit's three Superior Court judges recused themselves in the case. Seized by the state government was a Jim Walter home that Gresham and her husband erected in the 1950s, paying for it partly with money from a job she held at a local poultry plant. Her husband Tom died in June. The sudden lockdown at the address surprised at least one visitor, dropping off a package for Gresham, who she described as a lovely person and a good customer. The visitor found only an empty locked house.
''All I know is what I bring them,'' Mary Brake said.''It's prescription drugs.''
US OK: Widow Will Lose Rural Acreage URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n044/a13.html Newshawk: chip Pubdate: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 Source: Oklahoman, The (OK) Copyright: 2002 The Oklahoma Publishing Co Contact: yourviews@oklahoman.com Website: http://www.oklahoman.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318 Author: Robert E Boczkiewicz Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)
DENVER -- A 68-year-old Tulsa widow who bought a rural acreage with benefits she received as the spouse of a man listed as missing in action in Vietnam will lose it because she allegedly allowed her son to grow marijuana there, a divided appeals court ruled Thursday. The federal government will be allowed to take Ozella Scott's land under a drug enforcement law, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1.
Her attorney, James C. Linger of Tulsa, said the land in nearby Bixby consists of 25 or 30 acres. He said he thinks the appraised value is about $30,000.
Scott was not charged with any crime. She put up a legal fight to stop the forfeiture of her property, arguing she was the innocent owner of the land.
A federal Bureau of Indian Affairs agent and an Oklahoma Air National Guard pilot were killed Aug. 28, 1995, when their helicopter crashed while they were conducting drug surveillance over the land.
Scott's son, Mark, was arrested later that day for marijuana crimes on the property where he lived in a trailer.
The two appellate judges who decided Scott should lose ownership of her land concluded she had turned a blind eye to her son's illegal activities on her property.
"Congress has placed strict duties upon landowners to rid their property of drug activity," they wrote in an 11-page decision. "The fact that the occupant was Ms. Scott's son does not relieve her of her duties as a landowner to take all reasonable steps to keep her property free of illegal activities."
She denied she had allowed him to engage in marijuana growing and cited her efforts against his illegal activities.
The other judge, who wrote a seven-page dissent, said the lower court judge should have allowed a jury to determine whether evidence proved that Scott was "willfully blind" to her son's criminal conduct. She did not live on the property.
The lower court judge, James Ellison of U.S. District Court in Tulsa, granted a summary judgment in favor of the federal government, concluding there was no need for a jury trial.
Scott's husband, who was shot down over Vietnam, was declared dead after several years listed as missing in action, Linger said. Scott received government benefits as the surviving widow and used the money to buy the land.
Mark Allen was convicted of several crimes connected to his marijuana- growing activities on the land. Police caught him with five marijuana plants, 1.4 pounds of marijuana and items allegedly used in drug activity.
He testified he tried to conceal his criminal activity from his mother.
The U.S. attorney in Tulsa initiated the forfeiture proceedings against her. The law allows a judge to give the government ownership of property "used, or intended to be used . . . to commit, or to facilitate" a drug crime.
Man, if we're this brutal to elderly widows, imagine what we must be doing to the king pins.
Long live the New Reich.
I didn't say that. Dickens didn't either. Laws circumscribing the distribution of drugs to minors are valid, don't you think?
My thought was that any law that wipes its shoes on the Fourth Amendment is bogus.
Yea, I agree narcing children is evil and we need a law on that.
This law has been grossly abused and taken to the extreme. Several years back there was a report of a man soliciting a prostitute from his vehicle. He was arrested, and because he was using his vehicle to perpetrate a crime, his vehicle was confiscated. Everyone is complaining these days of how the 'Patriot Act' violates our civil rights. Where are these same people in regard to this law that allows our local yocal sheriff to confiscate a vehicle because it had just enough marijuana in it to qualify as 'intent to sell'? These people are not the filthy rich drug lords this law was intended to deter. And a house worth $150,000 should not be confiscated for $1,000 worth of drugs unless it can be proven beyond a doubt that the house was purchased soley with drug money.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.