Senate votes to reform asset forfeiture law

DES MOINES - Prosecutors would have to convict a suspected offender of illegal activity before they could seize property valued under $5,000 that was believed to have been associated with criminal activity, under reforms to the state's asset forfeiture law approved without dissent Tuesday by the Iowa Senate.

Senate File 446, which was sent to the Iowa House by a 49-0 margin, would require forfeiture proceedings under $5,000 to go through a criminal process, rather than the current civil proceeding that does not require a conviction for authorities to seize assets, contraband or proceeds from criminal activities such as dealing illegal drugs.

'We want to protect the constitutional right of every person to due process and we want to make sure the burden is on law enforcement and on prosecutors to prove a person's guilt and not on an innocent property owner to prove their innocence,” said Sen. Charles Schneider, R-West Des Moines. He told reporters after the vote he would prefer to do away with the civil forfeiture process altogether, but noted the process likely would have to be changed in incremental steps.

'It's part of a movement nationwide to move more toward criminal forfeiture and away from the civil process,” said Schneider. 'There's definitely momentum.”

Asset forfeiture is a process by which contraband and proceeds, or 'instrumentalities,” related to criminal activity may be seized by the state and sold. Civil forfeiture currently is available for crimes that are punishable by an aggravated misdemeanor or felony. However, the forfeiture is not precluded if the state fails to convict, or even indict or charge, the person from whom the property was seized.

Other provisions of S.F. 446 increase the standard of proof required for asset forfeiture to clear and convincing evidence and establish a 'proportionality” review of the seized property vis a vis the crime alleged, but an amendment approved by voice vote removed language barring the transfer of seized property to the federal government for equitable sharing of forfeited property and lowered the threshold for criminal conviction from $15,000 to $5,000 in consultation with county attorney and law enforcement.

'If you have something seized, when it goes through a criminal process then the prosecution has burden to prove that you're guilty of the behavior that led to the forfeiture. Currently, that's not the case,” said Schneider. 'Under our American system of jurisprudence, the burden should always be on the state to prove a person's guilt. It should not be on the innocent person to prove their innocence.”

Sen. Rich Taylor, D-Mount Pleasant, said he preferred the $15,000 provision originally in the bill but voted for the bill, telling his colleagues 'this is a lot better than what we have now.”

Schneider said the changes proposed in the Senate bill would improve Iowa's current law without impeding law enforcement efforts to deter crime by imposing unnecessary burdens on law officers or county attorneys.

Rep. Chip Baltimore, R-Boone, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he expected to schedule a subcommittee meeting Wednesday on the bill so it could be considered in full committee Thursday to beat this week's 'funnel” deadline for non-money bills to clear one chamber and a committee of the other chamber to remain eligible this session.

He said it would require 'a leap of faith” on the part of representatives to move the bill to the House debate calendar without time to analyze the provisions of Senate File 446 and assess the potential ramifications if it became law.

Schneider said he was optimistic the bill would win House support but, if not, he expected an interim committee would be appointed to study the issue so it could be taken up again next year.

In other action, senators voted 49-0 to pass a bill designed to reduce the cost for repairs at Lake Delhi in Eastern Iowa, where a dam on the Maquoketa River that created the 400-acre lake was washed away by flooding in June 2010. Senate File 493 would allow local association officials to refinance bonds to pay for a new dam that backers said would save about $300,000.

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