The goal is to help families before August to make sure there isn’t a surplus of eviction order cases going to court. Project NOW is working with the 14th Judicial Circuit in Rock Island County, the Rock Island County Bar Assocation, Prairie State Legal Serivces, Inc., and the Salvation Army to create the Eviction Diverstion Program. For more information on civil forfeiture, visit Illinois ending the moratorium on evictions in August, local organzations are working to help anyone who may be at risk of losing their home. If you or anyone you know has been a victim of civil forfeiture, please contact the Institute for Justice. “It’s the prosecutor’s duty to seek justice, not just to convict.”
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“Taking away one’s property without full due process is wrong,” he said. “We’re in a financial crisis,” he added. Vandersnick also wants better protections for innocent owners caught in forfeiture proceedings. To quash this perverse incentive, Vandersnick would like to see forfeiture proceeds directed away from police coffers and towards a neutral fund, as is the case in seven states and the District of Columbia. No wonder Vandersnick thinks agencies are “gung-ho” and “looking for revenue.”
Statewide, during that time, law enforcement agencies received $113 million in forfeiture proceeds, according to a recent report by the Institute for Justice. (The remaining tenth is sent to the state police to pay for any administrative costs.)Īn open records request revealed that between 20, Rock Island County alone collected more than $3.2 million in state forfeiture proceeds, including over $522,000 from forfeited vehicles. Meanwhile, the county state’s attorney’s office and the Office of the State’s Attorney Appellate Prosecutor also get a cut, each receiving 12.5 percent. Under Illinois law, the agencies that “conducted or participated in the investigation” that led to the forfeiture can keep 65 percent of the proceeds. Once property has been forfeited, agencies can auction it off or retain it for their own use. “The law gives them an incentive to be overzealous with these cases,” he said. Vandersnick thinks a financial motivation explains why prosecutors had been fighting to forfeit the truck so vigorously. Despite regularly litigating DUIs out of his own private practice, Vandersnick said Johnson’s case was the first time he’d seen a forfeiture proceeding arise from a suspended license charge.
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In Rock Island County, owners contest the government in only about five to 10 percent of all civil forfeiture cases.įortunately for Johnson, Larry Vandersnick, a former state’s attorney and judge, agreed to take his case pro bono. Since many do not have the means to fight back and since litigation can actually cost more than the value of the seized property, all too often owners are forced to walk away. Unlike cases in criminal court, those facing civil forfeiture do not have a constitutionally protected right to counsel. But because he couldn’t afford to post bond, Johnson clearly couldn’t afford to hire his own attorney. In Johnson’s case, that would have meant paying about $400 just to begin the fight.Īfter he filed an affidavit claiming hardship, the court waived that requirement.
The court keeps 10 percent of the bond even if the claimant is successful in getting his property back. Before they can even challenge a seizure, Illinois requires claimants to post a bond worth $100 or ten percent of the value of the property, whichever is greater. To regain his own property, Johnson had to fight an uphill battle.
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