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.
Selling them pardons?
This guy isn't exactly as sharp as a tack. Hopefully he didn't take this non exact approach in arguing the case.
These land takings are bogus. It has turned into trophy collecting for some law enforcement agencies. Seizure laws need to be reversed in their application. Meaning that reasonable doubt should be the threshold for the landowner to retain property and that the trial should occur prior to the taking.