Charges not pursued in some forfeitures

Criminal charges connected to the civil-asset forfeitures of nine vehicles, a motorcycle and a tractor sold at last week’s 18th Judicial District East Drug Task Force auction were either withdrawn or not filed, according to court records.

The items sold for more than $34,000, generating funding for DTF operations, while accompanying criminal charges for 22 of the more than 60 forfeitures filed last year were withdrawn.

The seizures accounted for more than $18,000 of the $62,000 seized for the county’s civil-asset-forfeiture fund last year. Of the $68,000 the fund reaped in 2015, more than $10,000 came from forfeitures in which companion criminal cases weren’t pursued.

Prosecutors file civil claims against assets linked to drug trafficking. Deputy Prosecutor Trent Daniels said

criminal charges connected to the civil actions are withdrawn or not filed for a variety of reasons. He pointed to the criminal case involving the forfeiture of a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu sold for

$3,500 at last week’s auction.

The criminal action was filed against the girlfriend of Leray Davis, who pleaded guilty to simultaneous possession of drugs and a firearm related to the forfeiture action filed against a 2007 Infinity, a 1997 Regal Cabin Cruiser boat and $1,027. He also pleaded guilty to first-degree battery in a case unrelated to the forfeiture filing.

Daniels said Davis consented to the terms of the plea agreement on the condition that the criminal charges against his girlfriend not be prosecuted. Daniels said Davis stipulated that his girlfriend was selling drugs on his behalf, and that the Malibu was purchased with proceeds from drug trafficking.

Daniels said the prosecutor’s office doesn’t file civil-asset forfeitures to gain an advantage in plea negotiations.

“It would be unethical to take a civil case into account in a criminal case,” he said. “They’re two separate cases.”

A consent judgment entered in the forfeiture filed against $10,742 and a

2008 Toyota Prius seized during Sunny Singh’s October arrest reduced the accompanying felony charges to misdemeanors in exchange for Singh agreeing to forfeit the car and $5,000. The car sold for $1,200 at last week’s auction.

Daniels said he wasn’t involved with the case and couldn’t comment on the circumstances that led to the agreement. In January, Singh was arrested on charges of possession with a purpose to deliver a controlled substance and keeping a gambling house.

A subsequent forfeiture claim was filed against the $26,383 seized at the scene. An agreed order entered in March returned $1,939 to Big D Supermarket in Mountain Pine, the site of the alleged activity. Daniels said the money was deemed to be the product of legitimate store transactions, and that the temporary restraining order that had closed the store, which is owned by Singh’s uncle, has been lifted.

The balance of the $26,383 was forfeited per the consent agreement, accounting for most of the $48,000 seized and transferred to the asset forfeiture fund this year.

Singh was indicted in March on a federal charge of being in the country illegally and transporting four firearms in interstate commerce. State charges related to the January seizure are pending.

Per an agreement the prosecutor’s office reached with Don and Silvia Martin, no charges were filed against them after multiple agencies executed a search warrant at their 250 Ragweed Valley Road property last June. A forfeiture claim was filed against a tractor that sold for $15,500 last week, $4,201 and other equipment the civil action said was consistent with a marijuana-manufacturing enterprise.

Daniels said the Martins were farming 30 acres of marijuana as part of a “substantial marijuana operation.” A nuisance abatement order was entered against the real estate after the search warrant was executed.

The Martins forfeited any claim to the Ragweed Valley address as part of the agreement they entered into with the state in November. A trust holds the mortgage on the real estate, and Daniels said most of the proceeds from the sale of the tractor went to paying it off.

“It had a $14,100 lien on it, so we only got $1,000,” he said. “Twenty percent of that went to the (Arkansas State Crime Lab Equipment Fund). There was no benefit to us in seizing the tractor.”

Daniels said the Martins fled the state after the search warrant was executed, and that Don Martin died soon after the agreement with the state was completed.

Many of the assets DTF seizes are owned by parties not charged in the accompanying criminal case, such as the 2005 Honda Accord and 1995 Ford mobile home sold at last week’s auction. Both items were transferred to the forfeiture fund by default after the owners didn’t respond to forfeiture complaints.

Daniels said property owned by people not involved in criminal activity that precipitates a forfeiture is usually returned if there’s a response to the complaint. Many times, an unwitting relative owns the property.

“We have people who really don’t know what their kids or grandchildren are doing,” he said. “We’re not in the game of taking grandma’s car. If they answer or have any kind of defense at all, frequently we will give it back. Unless they default, that’s not on me. That’s on them for choosing not to answer.”

Daniels said drug dealers don’t scruple to put property in other’s names. In 2014, DTF seized a 2014 Dodge Charger, a 2012 Chevrolet Camaro and $14,460 from Cedric Easter. Daniels said the money and vehicles were obtained through drug trafficking, and that the titles to both cars were in other people’s names.

No state charges were filed, but Easter pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Daniels said many criminal cases connected to forfeitures aren’t filed or prosecuted in deference to charges filed by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Arkansas.

Sentences imposed under the federal criminal code are a greater deterrence than what the state can mete out, Daniels said. Federal inmates serve 85 percent of their sentences in the Bureau of Prisons before they’re eligible for supervised release, whereas state inmates serve a fraction of the time they’re sentenced to for drug offenses.

“The feds have a bigger hammer than we do,” Daniels said.

No state charges were filed in connection to DTF’s seizure of $3,191, a

2003 Chevrolet truck and numerous landscaping items from Benito Garcia Altamirano in April 2016. Daniels said Altamirano was using his landscaping business as a front to sell methamphetamines, and that the U.S. attorney’s office is prosecuting him.

Federal charges have yet to be filed. The truck, three lawn mowers and utility trailer DTF seized from Altamirano sold for more than $11,000 last week.

While DTF receives most of the proceeds from cash and vehicles it expropriates, Daniels said seizures also serve to impede the business of drug trafficking.

“Drug dealing is a business,” he said. “People are selling drugs to make money. They need these things to operate their business. That’s why vehicles, cash, firearms, surveillance systems are the things we typically seize.”

Daniels said while the criminal code states that having large amounts of cash is consistent with possessing drugs for the purpose of delivery, smaller amounts can also be indicative of drug dealing.

The prosecutor’s office filed a civil claim for $80 seized during an arrest last year but withdrew the accompanying criminal charge.

“It probably was not four 20s,” Daniels said. “It was probably fives,

10s and smaller denominations. That’s evidence that they were dealing drugs.”