Under Civil Asset Forfeiture law, US citizens can often be subjected to having their money or property seized without having been even charged with a crime, let alone convicted of one. When police and law enforcement take property, with no trial, little due process, and sometimes no warning, it is up to the victim to hire a lawyer (if they can afford one) to try and get their property back.
The DKT Liberty Project believes that US citizens should not be considered guilty until proven innocent, and we are pushing back against civil forfeiture abuses by paying the attorney fees of victims and supporting efforts to get these laws reformed.
In 2016, local police in Norman, Oklahoma raided The Friendly Market, taking glass smoking pipes and all of the cash in the register on the grounds that they of violated OK’s drug paraphernalia statues and eventually forcing the store out of business. The DKT Liberty Project, an organization promoting individual liberty against government encroachment, is Read the full article…
In August of 2015, Paul Jones and his 19-year-old son, Grayson, were driving from Georgia to California when they were pulled over by the California Highway Patrol on Interstate 80 near Truckee, California. The officer alleged that their car was “straddling the white line” on the right-hand side of the road. The police video did Read the full article…
LJWorld.com posts the latest on Kansas’s asset forfeiture laws. Here’s an excerpt: The first bill to be introduced in the 2017 session of the Kansas Legislature calls for repealing a law that requires local law enforcement agencies to file annual reports about the money and other assets they seize from criminal suspects and what they Read the full article…
As reported by the Topeka Capital Journal: On March 24, Salvador Franco, of Las Vegas, pulled into an Ellsworth County rest stop. What began as a pause during a long drive has turned into a months-long battle after a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper approached him, searched his car and seized more than $32,000 in cash. Read the full article…
If a dangerous street hoodlum demands and then flees with your wallet, the police will call that robbery. But, if a police officer seizes your cash, car or other property on the mere suspicion that it is somehow connected to criminal activity – and without ever convicting or even charging you with a crime – Read the full article…
Ramon Juma flew from Asheville, NC to San Francisco. After he de-planed, federal authorities from the Drug Enforcement Agency searched his carry-on luggage and seized $24,000 in cash from his bag. Juma was never charged with a crime and did not have the funds to hire a good lawyer to try and get his money Read the full article…
On March 24, 2016, 23-year old Salvador Franco and his girlfriend were confronted by a state trooper while stopped at a westbound rest area on I-70 in Kansas. What followed was a nightmare travesty of justice. Their individual freedom and civil liberties were clearly violated,” says Franco’s attorney, David B. Smith, of Alexandria Virginia. Under Read the full article…
In the following article from Salina.com, Attorney David B. Smith, of Alexandria, Va., confirms the DKT Liberty Project has agreed to pay civil asset forfieture victim’s legal expenses based on the circumstances under which he was detained and his money was taken. A.C. Bushnell, program director for The DKT Liberty Project, said situations like Franco’s are Read the full article…
REPRINTED FROM THE HILL Repeal the Forfeiture Laws: Seize the Day, not our Property By AC Bushnell Should a U.S. citizen be subjected to having his money or property seized without ever being charged with a crime, let alone convicted of one? The answer is a resounding no! Yet this happens every day in America. Read the full article…