High Court Upholds State Forfeiture Law

If you commit a drug crime, the state can throw you in jail and confiscate your ill-gotten gains as well, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

In arriving at it’s 6-3 decision, the court rejected arguments that property seizure is punishment. If it was, it could prevent criminal charges from being filed on grounds it would amount to being punished twice for the same crime.

“We hold that so long as the forfeited property is proceeds of an illegal drug transaction, there is no punishment for purposes of double jeopardy,” Justice Phil Talmadge wrote for the majority.

The decision upheld the 1993 conviction of Michael Cole in King County Superior Court on charges of possessing marijuana with intent to deliver.

Clark appealed his conviction on grounds of double jeopardy.

Before his criminal trial, the state had seized Cole’s 18-foot ski boat, his 1977 boat trailer, his 1991 Toyota and his 1992 Chevrolet Astro van.

The seizure order was signed by King County Superior Court Judge Laura Inveen after she determined the items were proceeds of drug crimes.

Such forfeitures do not qualify as punishment under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Talmadge wrote, so “Cole’s double jeopardy claim fails.”

The court also rejected the double jeopardy argument in a second case, but sent the case back to King County Superior Court to determine whether the assets seized were really proceeds of illegal drug activity.

In that case, authorities seized from James Szymanowski $1,800 in cash, a 9-mm Beretta gun, a Titan .38-caliber pistol, a Whistler radar detector, a Telepage NW pager and a Realistic radio scanner.

Unlike the Cole situation, Talmadge wrote, there was no affidavit by a law enforcement official establishing that the seized property was drug-crime proceeds, and no such finding by a judge.

Talmadge said the incomplete record left the justices to merely speculate that the assets seized from Szymanowski were proceeds.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Charles Johnson said he would reverse the criminal convictions of both Cole and Szymanowski, because the civil forfeitures and criminal prosecutions were for the same offenses.

“Prosecutors can avoid this dilemma by seeking imprisonment, fines and forfeiture in one proceeding, as apparently becoming the practice under federal forfeiture statutes.”