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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ASSET FORFEITURE PROGRAM HEARING BEFORE THE LEGISLATION AND NATIONAL SECURITY SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SECOND CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SEPTEMBER 30, 1992 Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Operations Legislative Office MAIN LIBRARY U.S. Dept. of Justice U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 70-384 CC WASHINGTON : 1993 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 ISBN 0-16-041430-X COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan, Chairman CARDISS COLLINS, Illinois FRANK HORTON, New York GLENN ENGLISH, Oklahoma WILLIAM F. CLINGER, JR., Pennsylvania HENRY A. WAXMAN, California AL McCANDLESS, California MIKE SYNAR, Oklahoma J. DENNIS HASTERT, Illinois STEPHEN L. NEAL, North Carolina JON L. KYL, Arizona DOUG BARNARD, JR., Georgia CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut TOM LANTOS, California STEVEN SCHIFF, New Mexico ROBERT E. WISE, JR., West Virginia C. CHRISTOPHER COX, California BARBARA BOXER, California CRAIG THOMAS, Wyoming MAJOR R. OWENS, New York ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York RONALD K. MACHTLEY, Rhode Island BEN ERDREICH, Alabama DICK ZIMMER, New Jersey GERALD D. KLECZKA, Wisconsin WILLIAM H. ZELIFF, JR., New Hampshire ALBERT G. BUSTAMANTE, Texas DAVID L. HOBSON, Ohio MATTHEW G. MARTINEZ, California SCOTT L. KLUG, Wisconsin DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey GARY A. CONDIT, California BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii (Independent) RAY THORNTON, Arkansas COLLIN C. PETERSON, Minnesota ROSA L. DELAURO, Connecticut CHARLES J. LUKEN, Ohio JOHN W. COX, JR., Illinois JULIAN EPSTEIN, Staff Director CAROL BERGMAN, Associate Counsel DONALD W. UPSON, Minority Staff Director LEGISLATION AND NATIONAL SECURITY SUBCOMMITTEE JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan, Chairman GLENN ENGLISH, Oklahoma FRANK HORTON, New York STEPHEN L. NEAL, North Carolina JON L. KYL, Arizona GERALD D. KLECZKA, Wisconsin CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut CARDISS COLLINS, Illinois STEVEN SCHIFF, New Mexico RAY THORNTON, Arkansas COLLIN C. PETERSON, Minnesota ROBERT J. KURZ, Deputy Staff Director JAMES C. TURNER, Associate Counsel MIRANDA G. KATSOYANNIS, Professional Staff Member CHERYL A. PHELPS, Professional Staff Member ERIC M. THOMSON, Professional Staff Member JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, Professional Staff Member BENNIE B. WILLIAMS, Clerk CHERYL G. MATCHO, Clerk ROSALIND BURKE-ALEXANDER, Clerk JANE COBB, Minority Professional Staff (II) CONTENTS Page Hearing held on September 30, 1992 1 Statement of: Conyers, Hon. John, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the State of Michigan, and chairman, Legislation and National Security Sub­ committee: Opening statement 1 Copeland, Cary H., Director and chief counsel, Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, accompanied by Art Leach, Assistant Director 78 Jones, William, Nashville, TN 10 Shelden, Mary, Moraga, CA, accompanied by husband Carl Shelden, and Brenda Grantland, Attorney 16 Vender Zee, Harlan, former banker, San Antonio, TX 45 Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by: Conyers, Hon. John, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the State of Michigan, and chairman, Legislation and National Security Sub­ committee: Opening statement 3 Copeland, Cary H., Director and chief counsel, Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice: Prepared statement 82 Shelden, Mary, Moraga, CA: Itemization of costs to date 24 Prepared statement 32 Vander Zee, Harlan, former banker, San Antonio, TX: Prepared state­ ment 57 APPENDIX Material submitted for the hearing record 101 (III) DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ASSET FORFEITURE PROGRAM WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1992 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, LEGISLATION AND NATIONAL SECURITY SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:15 a.m., in room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. John Conyers, Jr. (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Members present: Representatives John Conyers, Jr., Collin C. Peterson, Frank Horton, and Christopher Shays. Subcommittee staff present: Robert J. Kurz, acting staff director; James C. Turner, counsel; Cheryl G. Matcho, clerk; and Jane Cobb, minority professional staff. Full committee staff present: Carol Bergman, associate counsel. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN CONYERS Mr. CONYERS. Good morning. This subcommittee will come to order. Last year, an investigative series in the Pittsburgh Press caught the attention of this subcommittee. It's one thing to read about an occasional incident where a person's rights were violated, but in this series there were documented hundreds of cases of innocent victims caught up in a criminal justice nightmare—people who lost their homes, who lost their businesses, their livelihoods, reputa­ tions—but they were never found guilty of any criminal conduct. In fact, 80 percent of the people whose property was seized under the asset forfeiture program were not even charged with a crime. Then the press uncovered a "Drug Courier Profile" in which most of the time the people that were detained were African American or Hispanic or Asian travelers. Now similar reports have appeared elsewhere across the United States, and all this is happening in the name of the war on drugs. Now, in Government Operations, our investigation shows that in­ nocent individuals who hold a note on a piece of real estate or who loan a vehicle to a friend have a real hard time getting their prop­ erty back if they're innocent. I have a lot of letters from people requesting to testify at this hearing about losing their boats, their cars, their homes, their planes, or just file drawers full of their motions and appeals before various courts in the country to get their property back. So a law designed to give cops the right to confiscate and keep the possessions of drug dealers seems to mostly ensnare the modest (1) 2 cars and homes and cash of ordinary, law-abiding people. That's not the way it was supposed to work. The cornerstone of our system of justice is that there is a pre­ sumption of innocence until proven guilty. As far as I know, the only part of our criminal justice system that ignores the presump­ tion of innocence is in this forfeiture business. So it's time to examine this law and learn as much about it as we can. I'm troubled, as Frank Horton is, by this widespread miscarriage of justice. So there are three questions before us this morning: Where does the money in the forfeiture program come from? How is the property and cash seized, maintained, and managed? Finally, the big one—now is the money spent? So we're going to look at that. I'm going to put the rest of my comments in the record, and rec­ ognize my friend and the senior member of this committee, the gentleman from New York, Mr. Frank Horton. [The opening statement of Mr. Conyers follows:] OVERSIGHT HEARING ON THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ASSET FORFEITURE PROGRAM JOHN CONYERS, JR., CHAIRMAN OPENING STATEMENT Subcommittee on Legislation and National Security Committee on Government Operations September 30, 1992 9:30 a.m. 4 Last year an investigative series in the Pittsburgh Press caught my attention. It's one thing to read about an occasional incident where a citizen's rights were violated, but this extraordinary series, "Presumed Guilty," documented hundreds of cases of innocent victims caught up in a judicial nightmare - people who lost their homes, their businesses, and their livelihoods, but were never found guilty of any criminal conduct. In fact, 80 percent of the people whose property was seized under the asset forfeiture program were never even charged with a crime. The press also uncovered a "Drug Courier Profile," which 77% of the time detained black, Hispanic, or Asian travellers. Similar stories have now appeared elsewhere across the United States. And this is all happening under the aegis of War on Drugs. Our investigation shows that innocent individuals who hold a note on a piece of real estate or who loan a vehicle to a friend have the hardest time getting their property back. I have a stack of letters from people requesting to testify at this hearing about losing their planes, their boats, their cars and their homes, and file drawers full of their motions and appeals before various courts in this country. A law designed to give cops the right to confiscate and keep the luxury possessions of major drug dealers mostly ensnares the modest 5 homes, cars and hard-earned cash of ordinary, law-abiding people. This was not the way it was supposed to work. The cornerstone of our system of justice Is supposed to be a presumption of innocence until one is proven guilty. As far as I know this is the only part of our criminal justice system that ignores the presumption of innocence. It would appear that the time has come to change the law. I have called this hearing because I am deeply troubled by such a widespread miscarriage of justice. In looking at the asset forfeiture program, there are three basic questions: • First, where does the money in the forfeiture program come from? • Second, how is property and cash seized maintained and managed? • And finally, how is the money spent? Where does the money come from? In 1984, Congress expanded the asset forfeiture laws to allow the government to take property without even charging the owner of any crime. The intent was to strike at the heart of major drug dealers for whom prison time is just a cost of doing business. Seizing profits -2­ 6 and property would hurt, and the proceeds would pay for more Investigations, so that criminals would actually finance their own undoing. Every crime bill since has expended the use of forfeiture. There are now more than 100 state and federal statutes covering everything from drugs and money laundering to importing tainted most and carrying intoxicants onto Indian land.

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