Jason Snead / @jasonwsnead / Jennifer Weinberg / / 13 comments
In yet another egregious case of civil asset forfeiture abuse, Michigander John Gutowski was forced to spend years fighting the government to reclaim over $250,000 in seized assets. Even after dropping criminal charges against him, prosecutors refused to return his property unless he agreed to let them keep $15,000 of his hard-earned money.
What was the crime in question? In 2013, federal authorities arrested John Gutowski and charged him with conspiring to commit marriage fraud. The crux of the case against him: Too many marriage applications were being filed by immigrant residents living in apartment buildings he owned.... the evidence did not develop as prosecutors hoped, and they were eventually forced to drop the charges against Gutowski. But they held on to the $250,000...... In response to questioning, the U.S. attorney in charge of the office that handled the matter, Barbara McQuade, said, “Based on the facts of this case, we determined that a small percentage of the funds seized should be forfeited.” She could have saved a few words and said that she just wanted it.......The fight to reform civil asset forfeiture is far from over. Cases such as Gutowski’s continue to occur with alarming frequency, and it is long past time to stop that.
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My Take - "To get back the seized property, owners must prove it was not involved in criminal activity. Sometimes it can mean a threat to seize property as well as the act of seizure itself". This is so obviously unconstitutional I can't imagine how it continues to exist.
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