A judge dismissed a Whistler man’s drug charges in January, but prosecutors continued to fight him for almost three months civil court for his car. The two sides reached a settlement last month, but when Joshua Trevor O’Field went to pick up his car from Mobile’s impound yard, it was not there. His lawyer said the city had sold it a year earlier – less than three months after O’Field’s arrest.
) - A judge dismissed a Whistler man’s drug charges in January, but prosecutors continued to fight him for almost three months civil court for his car.
Police arrested O’Field on Oct. 28, 2021. They charged the Whistler man, now 25, with cocaine trafficking a possession of marijuana. But Mobile County Circuit Judge Jill Phillips dismissed the charge on Jan. 6 after the police officer did not attend a hearing to consider a defense request to bar evidence from a search investigators conducted at the defendant’s home because it was outside Mobile’s jurisdiction.
It’s not clear why the city sold the car before the case was resolved. City officials declined to comment, citing pending litigation. But Walsh says this is an extreme example of a larger problem – laws allowing police to seize property without having to prove criminal wrongdoing beyond a reasonable doubt. The burden is much lower in a civil case.
“I will say this: Alabama’s forfeiture law is very conservative when you compare it to other state forfeiture laws, and it’s extremely conservative compared to the federal forfeiture law,” he said. The state Legislature has enacted modest reforms in recent years but has declined to take steps urged by some advocates, such as requiring a criminal conviction in order to seize money and property. In 2019, the Legislature created a database to track forfeiture cases in a nod toward transparency. A compromise that become law in 2021 prohibited forfeitures of less than $250 in cash and vehicles worth less than $5,000.
Forfeited property like cars typically gets sold, with the proceeds divvied up among the law enforcement agency, the DA’s Office and the court clerk’s office. Justin Bogie, senior director of fiscal policy at the Alabama Policy Institute, said that creates a situation ripe for abuse.Bogie said there is a misconception that police and prosecutors use asset forfeiture to target sophisticated criminal enterprises.
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