"The crazy perversities of civil asset forfeiture."
New development:
"But allowing unelected private attorneys to oversee a county's forfeiture proceedings on a contingency basis is the worst option yet."
Plus the usual corruption, e.g. a judge changing his mind about a case after asking for $5K in forfeiture money for A/V equipment and getting turned down: "'Since then Judge Headley has had, well, I'll just say he's had a much different demeanor in forfeiture cases.'"
Balko notes that Indiana's constitution requires forfeiture money goes to schools ("'child' is the root password to the Constitution"), but of course they have dodges to get around that.
"Take the Money and Run
"The crazy perversities of civil asset forfeiture."
New development:
"But allowing unelected private attorneys to oversee a county's forfeiture proceedings on a contingency basis is the worst option yet."
Plus the usual corruption, e.g. a judge changing his mind about a case after asking for $5K in forfeiture money for A/V equipment and getting turned down: "'Since then Judge Headley has had, well, I'll just say he's had a much different demeanor in forfeiture cases.'"
Balko notes that Indiana's constitution requires forfeiture money goes to schools ("'child' is the root password to the Constitution"), but of course they have dodges to get around that.