A Nevada judge ruled that state law enforcement can’t use a federal program to circumvent state law that protects property owners.
Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP) used a legal loophole that allowed police officers to seize property under state law and then process it federally. When doing this, NHP received up to 80% of the kickback from the seized property’s proceeds.
Washoe County Judge Connie Steinheimer dismissed law enforcement’s claim because it found no legal loophole.
“While federal law clearly provides Nevada the option to participate in the federal equitable sharing program, Nevada’s Legislature has yet to accept this offer. Without such an acceptance, NHP is unable to participate in this program – as doing so effectively requires NHP to eschew Nevada’s delineated forfeiture scheme,” the ruling said.
“NHP is required to utilize the appropriate means, Nevada’s forfeiture scheme, to reach its desired ends,” Steinheimer wrote.
The ruling came about after the NHP seized Stephen Lara’s life savings during a traffic stop. NHP handed over his money to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration without charging Lara with a crime. Doing this allowed NHP to bypass the state’s forfeiture protections.
After the incident, it took the marine veteran months to get his money back.
“This is a groundbreaking decision that closes the door on law enforcement agencies trying to evade their own state laws for profit,” said Ben Field, an attorney at the Institute for Justice (IJ). “The court recognized that Nevada’s civil forfeiture laws are clear: state police cannot outsource forfeitures to the federal government to make extra money. This ruling is a big step toward ending the abuse of civil forfeiture nationwide.”
In the ruling, the judge said Nevada had stricter forfeiture laws than the federal government.
“Nevada’s forfeiture scheme requires that a law enforcement agency ‘establish proof by clear and convincing evidence that the property is subject to forfeiture.’ However, under the federal forfeiture scheme, ‘the burden of proof is on the Government to establish, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the property is subject to forfeiture,’” the judge wrote.
Steinheimer said that NHP’s participation in the federal program violated state law.
“Law enforcement has no business profiting from civil forfeiture,” said IJ attorney Brian Morris. “This decision is a wake-up call to other states that have allowed police to skirt their laws by pretending that the federal government’s ‘equitable sharing program’ is a legal loophole. It is not and it’s time to close these loopholes once and for all.”
