Asset Forfeiture Abuse

(Jonathan H. Adler)

Radley Balko reports on fairly severe asset forfeiture abuse in Wisconsin. In short, after a woman’s son was arrested, the police told her she had to pay for his bail in cash (which was untrue). Then, when she showed up with the money, most of which she had just withdrawn from ATMs, the police seized the money under the state’s asset forfeiture law because a drug-sniffing dog detected traces of drugs on the money. Even with the help of an attorney, it took four months for the woman to get her money back. It’s bad enough that this sort of abuse is constitutional. It’s even worse that Wisconsin law enforcement would act this way.