Introductory statement at the Judiciary Hearing, July 22, 1996. Rayburn Building. To: House of Representatives / Committee on the Judiciary / Civil Forfeiture Reform I sincerely appreciate this opportunity to speak to you in person about my mother's experience with the abuse of our national civil forfeiture law, a law which ignores due process, encourages abuse by police and prosecutors, confiscates property from innocent law abiding citizens and threatens our sacred honor with the tyranny of a police state. My mother is an 85 pound, 75 year old hardworking frugal lady, who chose to squirrel away any extra money she had rather than buy herself any of the things most people consider necessities. Although she has bought a few residential rental properties, she still tears Kleenex in half to stretch her money, and settles for eating half sandwiches rather than run up her grocery bill. She has never taken a vacation or missed a day's work in the business, but neither has she ever been to a shopping mall. She's always lived as though the next Great Depression would happen any day. By 70, she managed to save around $70,000 which she kept in her house because her Depression experience taught her not to always trust banks. In December of 1989, the U.S. Government came to my mother's home and took her savings from a floor safe in her basement. Three months later, they seized her home and two rental properties she owned (20 men). You need to know my mother was never charged with a crime, and the police acknowledged she was never part of my brother's marijuana ring conspiracy. Mom's biggest sin was allowing the adult son she loved to live next door to her. After my brother was indicted, he fled town. The government suspected she PROBABLY had allowed him to use her property illegally, and PROBABLY been given cash earned by him illegally. As you know, asset forfeiture laws only require probable cause to seize property. Once property has been seized it is the owner's burden to prove innocence to the government. When this happened to Mom, I thought "innocent until proven guilty" would apply in her case and she would immediately get her cash back. Trusting the government, I didn't even hire an attorney then for that matter. I soon learned later that under the Constitution a citizen isn't afforded innocent until proven guilty in civil forfeiture cases. She wasn't considered innocent and the government didn't have to prove anything. The $70,000 they took from mom was mostly old bills dated from the 60's and 70's and was covered with mold and mildew. The safe was rusted shut and had to be drilled open. Tragically, the FBI did not keep her cash in an evidence locker, but deposited her money into a bank, co-mingling it with other people's money and thus destroying her evidence and proof of innocence. The morning government agents banged on Mom's door telling her they were there to seize her home, it included the local police, County Sheriff's Dept., U.S. Marshall's Service, several FBI agents, and IRS agents. All this force to take some property from one, innocent, unarmed, law abiding 70 year old, 85 pound woman. I immediately called our family attorney and he met me at Mom's house. It had previously been said to me by an agent, "They want to take everything your mother has a make her tell what she knows about your brother, and maybe it will make him come back, too !" When I arrived at Mom's home she was in a daze. She said she asked the agents where she was suppose to live and was told, "I don't care where you go, but you have a half-hour to pack up and get out !" Thankfully, our attorney was able to reach an agreement that allowed Mom to "rent" her own house from the government until the case went to trial. The horror of the forfeiture squad invading her home still brings regular nightmares to mom 6 years later. I did everything in my power to convince the government agents that they were making a huge mistake and that mom was not a criminal. To them that didn't matter. Since they COULD seize her property, they did. An agent said to me, "When I first took this case to my boss, he said not even to mess around with it, that it was just another stupid marijuana case, until I showed him how many assets we could get!" I spent many, many cooperative and truthful hours trying to convince them that this was insane, and finally realized it would cost me more going to trial than her properties were worth. I eventually made a settlement with them and Mom got to keep a little of what she worked her whole life for. They took most of it, including her dignity and love for our government. I am here for my mother and our Country. It is too late to help her case, and besides, I had the government sign a paper that they could never bother her again. I want to make sure they can never do this to another mother with a bad kid. I have been on this crusade since I saw a Readers Digest article in 1992, titled, Is It Police Work or Plunder, about nationwide forfeiture abuse and Congressman Hyde's effort to reform this law. I bought a computer, joined an Online Internet Service and have been emailing thousands of unaware citizens to educate them about this barbaric civil forfeiture law. Nobody thinks it is right when they learn how it is used, except prosecutors who do not want a proof provision in the law. One prosecutor told me, "Citizens don't need a proof provision, those in charge of a case are perfectly capable of determining who is guilty!" That statement, I was told by a Constitutional law professor, is the definition of tyranny. I love the America I knew growing up in the 40's and 50's, but am scared to death of the police state this Country could become with more and more laws allowing forfeiture. IT HAS TO STOP. Our Founding Fathers put their lives on the line against tyranny and cavalier attitudes. In my opinion, no real or personal property should be forfeited except in criminal cases. Eliminate this ridiculous, insane, corrupting law, or re-write it to include proof, fairness and compassion. It is ruining people's lives and is just another national disgrace. Thank you. Other material furnished to all of you gentlemen: The book I titled, U.S. v. Grandma, and the flyer I email out all over America. My note here: At the Hearing were the Justice Dept, Customs, IRS, State Police, FBI, Cato Institute, Nat'l Crim. Lawyers Assoc, IL Bar Assoc, ACLU, and the black man whose cash they took at an airport when he paid cash for his tickets. At the Hearing, the Justice Dept., an historical first, conceded the law needs modernized and the burden of proof should be on the government. However, it does not want to give citizens a very strong standard of proof protection in any reform law. The major news media did not print any of this for the American citizen to see. The 104th Congress ended shortly after this, now we start all over again with the 105th Congress.