Dealers Seize on Ruling to Seek Assets
"We fail to see how two separate actions, one civil and one criminal,
replica cost of rolex oyster perpetual datejust, instituted at different times, tried at different times before different fact finders, presided over by different district judges, and resolved by separate judgments, constitute the same 'proceeding,' " the judge wrote.
According to Reinhardt, prosecutors had maneuvered themselves into a no lose position: If they won the criminal case,
replica rolex oyster perpetual datejust womens, they could move to seize the men's assets based on their convictions. If the men were not convicted, prosecutors could still seize their assets because the more lenient standards in civil forfeitures would place the burden on the accused drug dealers to prove their assets had not been purchased with illegal drug profits.
"We believe that such a coordinated,
replica rolex perpetual datejust, manipulative prosecution heightens, rather than diminishes, the concern that the government is forcing the individual to 'run the gantlet' more than once," Reinhardt wrote. "We are not willing to whitewash the double jeopardy violation in this case by affording constitutional significance to the label of 'single, coordinated prosecution,' "
The decision had an immediate impact.
In Alaska, federal charges were also dropped against an Anchorage man accused of using his ties to the Cali Cartel to ship about 500 pounds of cocaine from Los Angeles and Houston to New Jersey. A judge ruled that the government had already penalized the man, Gerald Frank Plunk, when they seized his cash, firearms, gold, and a Rolex watch worth $1,500.
State courts in Washington have also dismissed drug charges because prosecutors had previously seized defendants' assets, according to Troberman, who said two of his clients in separate cases benefited from the decision.
In some cases, courts have also ordered that assets be returned to convicted drug dealers who had been punished already by criminal prosecution.
One of those who benefited from the double jeopardy ruling is Darnell Garcia, a former agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration whose arrest triggered one of the largest scandals in recent law enforcement history.
Prosecutors alleged that Garcia and two of his colleagues at the DEA stole narcotics from suspects and from the drug agency's vault, stashing away millions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts. Garcia was caught in 1989 in Luxembourg, where he had fled after he was indicted by a federal grand jury. He was eventually sentenced to 80 years in prison.
But Garcia, citing the 9th Circuit decision, challenged the seizure and sale of his posh estate in Rancho Palos Verdes. U. S. District Judge Manuel Real of Los Angeles agreed, and reversed the forfeiture. The judge's decision has been placed on hold pending the Supreme Court's review of the case.
Word that some felons have been successful in challenging their convictions has caused a flurry of appeals.
One of those comes from Fowlie, who lost his Orange County ranch in an odd chain of events that started on a February morning in 1985, when one of Fowlie's ranch foremen, high on drugs, began shooting a gun in the early morning darkness in Laguna Beach.
The commotion brought on police, who found $73,000 in cash and a 50 pound bale of marijuana in the Laguna home where the foreman was staying. The follow up investigation led police to Fowlie's remote ranch on a winding dirt road just off Ortega Highway near Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park.
Sheriff Brad Gates controlled the ranch for six years and promoted it as a site for a regional drug enforcement training center. In 1989, President George Bush used it as a backdrop for a nationally televised anti drug speech. The ranch was eventually sold to the Girl Scouts of America in 1994 for $2.38 million.
Now Fowlie is contending that the seizure of his Rancho Del Rio and his criminal conviction years later constitutes double jeopardy.
But Elana Shavit Artson, the assistant U. S. attorney in Santa Ana who is arguing the case against Fowlie, said the dope dealer cannot claim he was penalized twice,
cost of rolex oyster perpetual datejust replica, because he never contested the seizure of Rancho Del Rio in the first place.
Prosecutors say that even though they are winning nine out of 10 cases, appeals like Fowlie's are keeping them busy.
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