This is the kind of sleazy crap that happens when you have cities scraping for money — they decide to take advantage of the vulnerable:
Philadelphia law enforcement has transformed a once obscure legal process into a racket that treats Americans as little more than ATMs. Every year, the city collectsalmost $6 million in revenue from forfeiture. According to data collected by the Institute for Justice, between 2002 and 2012, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office seized and forfeited over 3,000 vehicles, nearly 1,200 homes and other real estate properties and $44 million in cash. Altogether, Philadelphia has generated a staggering $64 million in forfeiture proceeds, which equals one-fifth of the DA Office’s entire budget. Forty percent of those funds—$25 million—pay law enforcement salaries, including the salaries for the prosecutors who have used civil forfeiture against families like the Sourovelises.
Civil forfeiture is a nationwide problem. But the scale and scope of Philadelphia’s forfeiture machine is practically unrivaled on the municipal level. Kings County, New York, which includes Brooklyn, generated $1.2 million from forfeiture in 2010, even though its population is 1.5 times larger. Los Angeles County also kept $1.2 million in seized assets that same year, despite having more than six times as many people as Philadelphia.
In a statement responding to IJ’s lawsuit, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office claimed it pursues civil forfeiture cases “judiciously.” Yet Philadelphia has filed more forfeiture cases than any other jurisdiction in Pennsylvania, even though they all operate under the same state law. In 2011 alone, the Philadelphia DA filed over 6,500 civil forfeiture cases. Compare that to the second-largest county in the state, Allegheny County (which includes Pittsburgh), filed a mere 200 from 2008 to 2011.
The City of Brotherly Love is particularly aggressive in pursuing homes and other real estate. Between 2009 and 2010, Philadelphia forfeited 90 real estate properties. That same year, Allegheny County did not forfeit a single home or piece of real estate. Nor is that year an outlier. Between 2002 and 2012, Philadelphia forfeited 1,172 real estate properties, while the 66 other counties in Pennsylvania forfeited 56 real properties—combined.
Meanwhile, the owners who want to defend themselves and retrieve their seized property must venture to the Orwellian-sounding Courtroom 478. Despite its name, there are neither judges nor juries in Courtroom 478. Instead, there are only assistant district attorneys and a scheduler, who deal with up to 80 forfeiture cases in a single day.
With the prosecutors running this kangaroo court, the DA’s Office clearly wields enormous power. Poring over 8,000 asset forfeiture cases filed against cash in 2010, the Philadelphia City Paper found that 83 percent were decided on the very first court listing. Of those, a staggering 96 percent of the decisions favored the DA.
Incredibly, property owners battling civil forfeiture have fewer rights than those actually accused of committing a crime. Unlike in criminal cases, the government does not need to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” to prevail. Instead, once prosecutors show merely that there was a link between a property and some alleged criminal activity owners must prove their innocence. Moreover, since these cases are in civil court, owners facing forfeiture do not have a right to an attorney.
Prosecutors further tilt the odds by “relisting” civil-forfeiture cases, forcing owners to trek back to Courtroom 478 again and again and again. If an owner misses just one hearing, the government can immediately forfeit the property. The Sourouvelis family already has been to Courtroom 478 four times, with no end in sight. They still have not seen a judge.
Rochelle Bing, another innocent homeowner, was stuck in legal limbo for more than two years before the DA settled her case. Like Sourovelis, Bing was never charged with a crime or accused of any wrongdoing. Yet Bing or her attorney had to appear at Courtroom 478 at least 23 times before the city allowed her to keep her home.
By filing a class-action lawsuit in federal court, the Institute for Justice is seeking to end the city’s unconstitutional civil forfeiture practices and to force the city to return wrongfully seized property. Philadelphia should not profit from denying due process to thousands of people.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of civil forfeiture, please contact the Institute for Justice. For more information on civil forfeiture, visit endforfeiture.com.
The real evil in this scheme is that the money collected is now so consistent from year to year that it has become a line item in the budget of every city and town. Collection has become incentivized. No less brutal than confiscation is how local police departments issue tickets to bring in additional law enforcement dollars. It appears that each municipal department has developed it’s own scam to steal directly out of the pockets of its citizens. Land of the free and home of the brave.