New Jersey Attorney General Releases Drug Forfeiture Report

FEAR-List Bulletin posted by John Paff, 4/8/98

TRENTON - New Jersey's 1995 appropriation act requires the state attorney general to prepare semi-annual reports of property and money seized and/or forfeited by state level law enforcement agencies.

The reports have two major limitations:

1. Seizures and forfeitures by county and local authorities are not required to be included in the reports. Only seizures and
forfeitures by the New Jersey State Police and Division of Criminal Justice are reported.

2. Although the New Jersey forfeiture statute is triggered by any type of criminal activity, the reports only need to include
forfeitures and seizures involving drug and drug paraphernalia offenses (N.J.S. 2C:35-1 et. seq. and N.J.S. 2C:36-1 et.
seq.).

The act requires the reports to be filed with the state Office of Management and Budget, and with the appropriations committees of both houses of the legislature.

The report for the period July 1, 1997 through December 31, 1997 was recently made public. It was prepared by Thomas J. O'Reilly, Administrator, Department of Law and Public Safety, 25 Market Street, CN 081, Trenton, NJ 08625-0081, Phone 609/292-9660. Future reports may be obtained from O'Reilly, or from Elizabeth Pugh, Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget, 33 West State Street, CN 221, Trenton, NJ 08625-0221, Phone 609/292-6746, Fax 609/633-8179.

Here is the full text of the report:

STATE OF NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF LAW AND PUBLIC SAFETY

This information is being provided in compliance with the Appropriations Act requirement that the Attorney General provide the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting, the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, the Assembly Appropriations Committees or the successor committees thereto with a written report of seized or forfeited property.

The following is a summary of information compiled on property and money seized and/or forfeited by State law enforcement agencies (Division of State Police and Criminal Justice) involving only offenses under N.J.S. 2C:35-1 et seq. and N.J.S. 2C:36-1 et seq All other funds seized or forfeited to State law enforcement agencies are not included in the information. This information is for the specific period July 1, 1997 to December 31, 1997.

The information provided indicates that property or money has been seized or forfeited. Property or money listed as "seized" means that the property or money is under litigation and is waiting final disposition. Property or money listed as "forfeited" means that there has been a final disposition and the State's title to the property has been confirmed.

Please note that it is difficult to make comparisons between amounts in the following information, because of the nature of the forfeiture process. The property and money listed as "seized" was seized between July 1, 1997 and December 31, 1997. However, title to property and money listed as "forfeited" was confirmed between July 1, 1997 and December 31, 1997 but could have been seized in this time period or earlier. The forfeiture process is sometimes lengthy and the actual forfeiture of the property or money may take place in a fiscal year subsequent to the seizure.

TRANSFERS (July 1, 1997 to December 31, 1997)

Between July 1, 1997 and December 31, 1997 transfers totaling $997,708.84 were completed out of forfeiture funds.

The Division of Criminal Justice received $767,300 with a breakdown as follows:

$123,000 Confidential Purposes

$644,300 represents the final allocation from the Phase VII-A allotment of $1,239,308 for State Match to the following Federal grants:

Edward Byrne Drug Block Grant
Residential Substance Abuse
Local Law Enforcement Block Grant

The Division of State Police received $206,500 with a breakdown as follows:

$23,500 from the Pennsylvania State Attorney General's Contributive Share of forfeited funds for street level
Narcotics Enforcement efforts, $163,000 Confidential Purposes and $20,000 Witness Protection.

The Department of Military and Veteran Affairs received $21,000 to support the National Guard's Summer Youth Camp from July 27 to August 2, 1997.

The Division of Taxation, Office of Criminal Investigations received $2,908.84 (balance in their CMF Account 10/20/97).

CASH
(July 1, 1997 to December 31, 1997)

1. Cash seized by State law enforcement agencies: $3,292,393.78

2. Cash value of cases turned over to the counties for prosecution: $1,419,235.85

3. Seized cash turned over to Federal law enforcement for prosecution: $230,001.72

4. Seized cash retained by the state for:
state prosecution: $1,670,156.21
county prosecution: $ 784,421.00

5. Seized cash returned to claimant per court order: $309,621.98

6. Seized cash prosecuted and forfeited by the state: $2,850,578.40

7. Cash forfeited by the state and shared with local law enforcement agencies: $920,482.00

8. Cash forfeited by federal and local law enforcement agencies and shared with the state:
Local: $ 796,471.22
Federal: $ 66,910.39

9. Forfeited cash turned over to the Department of Health Hepatitis account: $113,687.61

MISCELLANEOUS
(July 1, 1997 to December 31, 1997)

Vehicles

State law enforcement agencies seized 34 vehicles with an estimated value of $297,600.00 between July 1, 1997 and December 31, 1997. Of these vehicles, 24 with an estimated value of $202,250.00 are being held by the county of seizure pending forfeiture and 10 with an estimated value of $95,350.00 are being held by the State Law Enforcement Agencies.

Thirteen forfeited vehicles were titled by police law enforcement agencies at an estimated value of $67,125.00 between July 1, 1997 and December 31, 1997.

Seventy-six vehicles were titled and sold at Auction in September 1997, valued at $142,430.00.

Real Property

There were no seizures or restraints of Real Property between July 1, 1997 and December 31, 1997.

Other Property

There were no seizures of Other Property between July 1, 1997 and December 31, 1997.

Income

Interest in the amount of $16,143.44 was earned on money seized under N.J.S. 2C:35-1 et seq and N.J.S. 2C:36-1 et seq.

Interest in the amount of $80,925.30 was earned on monies forfeited to the State during this period.

Additional income included $6,525.00 in rent payments and $1,108.00 in note payments.