But it's true. This is a story of youthful foolishness, drugs, the absence of drugs, the DEA, theft, and injustice. It is so offensive and sad that I am just not sure what to do. So I am writing to my trusted Kossacks for support and advice.
I have a friend, Cyrus, the twenty-five year old son of a friend, a really "straight" guy. Like so many kids of his generation, he's distanced himself from his parents' "hippie" roots. I'm not sure he has ever even smoked a joint.
But he seems to be in trouble with the D.E.A.
It happened like this:
Cyrus is a massage therapist. He has been working for about three years and this year his career has really taken off. He has a coterie of devoted clients, including one, a wealthy amateur athlete who has taken him "on tour" as his personal masseur. Some of his work pays him a salary, but for much of his work he's paid individually, in cash. I won't go into it in detail here, but Cyrus has some "trust issues" which has kept him away from banks. He's kept his savings, totaling $20,000 from earnings in 2009, under the mattress in cash.
So last week, when he was going to be away from home with some not so close friends staying in his apartment, he decided to keep his cash with him.
While traveling by car (borrowed for the occasion from his brother's girlfriend), about an hour from home, in Petaluma on the suburban outskirts of San Francisco, he was stopped by a police officer. After the usual initial interchange, "license and registration," the officer asked not, "Do you know why I pulled you over?" but, "Do you have any drugs?"
Incredulous, my friend, becoming anxious despite his innocence, answered, "No sir!"
Next, he was ordered out of the car and directed to put his hands on the hood while the police officer brought a dog out of his patrol car to inspect Cyrus' vehicle. After a thorough pass through, the dog scratched at the trunk leading the officer to reach into the car and pull open the trunk latch.
In the trunk, the officer found $20,000. "Where's this money from?' he demanded. Cyrus, frightened, lied: "It's not mine!"
A short while later the incident was over. Cyrus held a "fix-it" ticket for a broken taillight and a receipt for $20,000 in confiscated cash. There was no arrest, no official charge, just my friend left wondering what had happened.
It's hard to believe that the police can take money like this, but it is true. According to the Shaffer Library of Drug Policy most seizures of assets by the DEA, usually acting through local police forces, as in this case, are of small amounts (under $50,000) and 80% of all people from whom assets are seized are never even charged with a crime.
The next day he called the Petaluma police department inquiring about the status of his money but was told that there was no record of his money.
Cyrus was distraught and called me. Although I am a family doctor, I spent a year in law school and know something about money. With confidence, I reassured him that the money was his and could not be taken without due process. I also reassured him that he needn't even worry about the tax implications of having money in cash; tax returns for 2009 aren't due until April 15, 2010. He would be fine declaring that income on his returns then. I joked with him about what a fool he was to keep his earnings under the mattress, or in the trunk!
But then the letter came from the DEA. Cyrus learned via registered mail that his earnings had been given to the DEA in "asset forfeiture" and that he had thirty days to initiate a claim that the money ought to be returned.
Again we spoke and this time I contacted friends of mine, law professors who gravely told me that Cyrus was in trouble. It seems that the DEA may seize money with only probable cause and that any sum in cash over $10,000 which does not display an obvious legitimate origin is deemed presumptively to be of illegal origin, and thus legally subject to asset forfeiture.
Cyrus needed a lawyer, a criminal lawyer.
Yesterday he consulted with a criminal defense attorney. The bottom line: Cyrus has two options--- Appeal the forfeiture himself, a process with the success rate of a snowball's chance in hell or engage the services of an experienced attorney, a process that offers some chance of success but at an expected cost of no less than, you guessed it.... $20,000. The attorney's advice: Kiss your money goodbye.
Please folks, tell me it just ain't so!