Feds Fail At Stealing Private Property In Civil Forfeiture Case

[CG6468]

Feds Fail At Stealing Private Property In Civil Forfeiture Case
 
Motel Caswell in Massachusetts is a family owned business, and has been in business since the 50’s. Russ and Patricia Caswell’s $1 million motel property came under fire a couple months ago when the federal government decided they wanted to seize it under civil forfeiture laws.
 
The Caswells were an easy target for easy money because they are a small “Mom & Pop” business without the funds necessary to fight a civil forfeiture case against the feds. Also, their property has no mortgage, is completely owned by the Caswells, and if seized by the feds, all the proceeds would go to them and the local police department, a practice they call “equitable sharing.”
 
Since 1985 when the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture Fund was created, they’ve accumulated $1.6 billion by seizing people’s private property. But they always want more. They came after the Caswells not because they were guilty of anything, but because for the past 20 years, a handful of people had been arrested there at the Motel Caswell on drug charges.
 
So, since crimes had been committed on that property, they thought they could just take it. At least that was their excuse. Ordinarily, I’m sure they would have succeeded, but the Institute for Justice came to the Caswell’s aid and fought for them.
 
The case has now been dismissed as of Thursday:
 
 â€œIn one of the most contentious civil forfeiture fights in the nation, Magistrate Judge Judith G. Dein of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts concluded, based on a week-long bench trial in November 2012, that the motel was not subject to forfeiture under federal law and that its owners were wholly innocent of any wrongdoing.”

Good! Screw the land grab!  

[thundley4]

I'm glad they won.  I remember reading about this last year or so.

[Eupher]

Jeezus, it's pretty bad when the federal government can't even properly steal property.

Can't run guns to Mexico properly. (The idea was to bust the offenders at the time of transaction - ATF failed to do that.)

Can't run an immigration program without hosing it up. (Tons of data on that happy little program.)

Can't run an EPA without having the courts throw out damn near every lawsuit that surfaces.

WTF can the gubmint do correctly? Anything? Bueller?

[JohnnyReb]

Jeezus, it's pretty bad when the federal government can't even properly steal property.

Can't run guns to Mexico properly. (The idea was to bust the offenders at the time of transaction - ATF failed to do that.)

Can't run an immigration program without hosing it up. (Tons of data on that happy little program.)

Can't run an EPA without having the courts throw out damn near every lawsuit that surfaces.

WTF can the gubmint do correctly? Anything? Bueller?

Bueller won't answer. Bueller decided he wasn't learning anything in school, so he dropped out of high school and is now a multi billionaire in Hong Kong.

[NHSparky]

This is the same US Atty who was prosecuting Aaron Swartz before he killed himself.

She's not doing so hot lately.

[Eupher]

This is the same US Atty who was prosecuting Aaron Swartz before he killed himself.

She's not doing so hot lately.

Yeah, it's kinda hard to go to court with a corpse.

Can't cut a deal with a stiff.

And you certainly can't send a dead kid up the river.

What's that spell, in attorney-speak?

FAIL.

[NHSparky]

Well, this motel case keeps getting better.  Nevermind the fact that she quite publicly got the beatdown over this overreach of her power, she's indicating she's still going to pursue it.

Talk about your egos.