LAKE COUNTY — A unanimous United States Supreme Court decision made last week could limit the ability of state and local authorities, including in Lake County, to take money and property tied to crimes.
Law enforcement officers around the country commonly take cash, cars, homes and other property from individuals when that property is thought to have been used for criminal activity. This practice—asset forfeiture—is a source of additional revenue for law enforcement, but can be easily abused when the value of the property taken is out of proportion to reasonable penalties for the crime committed.
The decision holds that the “excessive fines” clause of the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution applies to the states. Asset forfeiture remains a legal practice, but the decision will give defendants in such cases more ground to stand on when arguing that what was taken from them was excessive.
While a Santa Rosa Press Democrat investigation found that the Rohnert Park Public Safety Department had seized more than $2.4 million in asset forfeiture cases between 2015 and 2018, Lake County law enforcement agencies have seized significantly less.
Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen said Wednesday that asset forfeiture revenues were “pretty insignificant in our total budget.” Out of a $3.3 million budget, the LPD counted just $20,000 from asset forfeitures in the 2015-16 and 2016-17. The same amount was written into the current year’s budget.
The Lake County District Attorney’s Office budgeted for just $3,000 of asset forfeiture revenue in the current fiscal year, after this revenue had experienced a sharp drop in recent years “due to the change in marijuana laws in California,” according to the county budget. In the 2017-18 fiscal year, the DA had $26,072 in asset forfeiture revenues.
The asset forfeiture functions of the DA and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, according to the county budget, operated at a net cost to the departments in the 2017-18 fiscal year.
The Clearlake Police Department had $27,409 in asset forfeiture revenues in the 2016-17 fiscal year, and just $1,809 the previous year. No such revenues are budgeted for this year.
LPD Chief Rasmussen was not aware of the new court decision when interviewed by the Record-Bee, he said, noting that he was not sure how it would affect his department’s practices. He said he supports asset forfeiture as long as it “goes through the proper procedures.”
