October 20, 2015
District attorneys from throughout the state gathered in Harrisburg on Tuesday to announce their opposition to proposed state Senate bill that would reform rules on civil forfeiture.
In a release, the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association said the bill, SB 869, would create a "Drug Dealer Bill of Rights."
"This bill should be referred to as ‘The Pennsylvania Drug Dealer Bill of Rights,’” testified Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman, president of the state association. “When more people are dying from drug overdoses than ever before, now is not the time to give a break to drug dealers. This bill will allow drug dealers to traffic more drugs, make more money and thrive.”
Ferman's comments come hot on the heels of a report released by the ACLU on civil forfeiture procedures that says Montgomery County seizes property not only from people never convicted of a crime nor charged with a drug-related offense, but from African-American residents at a percentage higher than the rest of the state.
According to the ACLU's Broken Justice report, released on Monday, African Americans only make up nine percent of the county's population, but account for 53 percent of those who have seen property forfeited to the government.
In Pennsylvania, law enforcement officials can seize an individual's property if they believe the property – such as cars, homes and cash – have been used in connection with a crime.
Overall, the ACLU reported that the state pulls in more than $14 million in annual revenue from civil forfeiture. With a population of about 800,000 residents, Montgomery County typically sees revenue of about $1.2 million a year – or more than seven percent of the district attorney's annual operating budget.
The pending bill, put forth by state Sen. Mike Folmer (D-48) and state Sen. Anthony H. Williams (D-8) would change how civil forfeiture operates in Pennsylvania in one major way: it would require a property owner to be convicted of a crime before any money, conveyances or real estate property can be seized.
Ferman testified Tuesday that the bill "as currently written fails to recognize how drug dealers operate or how drug investigations take place," said a statement.
The release notes that Ferman argued that the proposed bill could allow drug dealers to keep the tools of their trade, help some defendants intimidate witnesses, avoid convictions and severely limit law enforcement efforts to stop them.
Yet, the ACLU report says at least eight percent of the property seizures in Montgomery County were from individuals who were not convicted of the alleged crime that led to the seizure. Another 15 percent of property seizures were from individuals never even charged with a crime related to drug dealing.
In fact, the ACLU report claims that in Montgomery County many of those who have had property seized aren't even made aware that their property has been taken by the government, as prosecutors often cite a 1978 court ruling that decided individuals automatically waive their rights to their property if they don't file a motion for the its return.
"The end result is that the Montgomery County DA’s Office can – and often does – win forfeiture cases simply by holding seized property until defendants unwittingly waive their right to it by not proactively filing a motion for its return," notes the ACLU report.
Yet, in Harrisburg on Tuesday, Ferman said that the proposed civil forfeiture reform bill goes "too far."
"Requiring a criminal conviction as a mandatory condition for forfeiture would be an enormous win for drug dealers and would make it simple for drug dealers to protect their property, proceeds, and instrumentalities of crime," she testified.
A representative in Ferman's office said she could not respond to the ACLU's report as of press time as she was in Harrisburg.
