They could lose cash, their vehicle and other property.

 

Minnesota law permits a court to order the forfeiture of certain property associated with the commission of certain crimes.

 

“Certain criminal activities meet statutory requirements where law enforcement agencies can forfeit property,” says Captain Dan Andren of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Dept. “Drug offenses, alcohol driving offenses and fleeing from the law will qualify to forfeit cash or vehicles.”

 

Cash from a drug bust can be seized and forfeited. Firearms have been forfeited because they were used in the commission of a crime or a hunting violation.

 

Every year, the department seizes property associated with criminal activity. But there are specific criteria to follow in every case.

 

“There are strict laws as to what can we forfeit and under what circumstances,” he says. “The vast majority of what we’ve encountered are DUI forfeitures, some fleeing forfeitures (in a motor vehicle trying to elude law enforcement in a police pursuit) and drug forfeitures.”

 

The process to forfeit property has multiple steps, and it can sometimes take months to determine whether property will be forfeited.

 

The arresting officers will serve the driver of the vehicle or owner of the property that there’s a notice of intent to seize cash or forfeit the cash or vehicle. 

 

“Then they have a 60-day window where they can set up hearings to contest that,” says Andren. “If they choose not to contest the forfeiture, it becomes automatic, independent of the criminal case itself.”

 

But sometimes forfeitures are challenged.

 

“There may be a co-owner defense where the driver is not the owner, or the driver didn’t have a lawful right to use the vehicle,” says Andren. “Or there’s a legal interest in the vehicle or property besides the person who was arrested with it. That’s their time to create those challenges and then the judge will decide if the  forfeiture will proceed or if the property should be returned to the rightful owner.”

 

Andren says the county attorney might determine they would have a difficult case to prove. Or, the property might have little or no value.

 

Andren isn’t involved in the legal aspects of the cases. That’s the county attorney’s job, and then the courts. 

 

“I get involved on the tail end, processing the paperwork and tracking it with the county attorney’s office and the courts,” he says.  “Once the hearings are all done and the forfeiture is granted - or not, I take it from there.”

 

Seized vehicles are stored indoors at a county facility in Becker. They remain there until the courts have made a decision.  In the past, the county sold seized vehicles though an auction clearinghouse. Those are now done online through a competitive bid process.

 

The county has a different process for forfeited firearms.

 

“Sales of firearms are few and far between. We don’t sell  them to outside law enforcement. We typically contact a law enforcement vendor who would then sell those to other law enforcement agencies,” says Andren. “On rare occasions some of them would be repurposed for departmental use.” 

 

Sometimes forfeited cash is used as “buy money” in undercover operations.  But generally, proceeds from the sales of vehicles and other property are split between the county attorney’s office, the county’s general fund and the law enforcement agency that initiated the forfeiture.

 

In 2013, sales of forfeited property netted $55,211.

 

That was up from $37,198 in 2012 and $25,218 the year before.

 

Andren says when he started handling forfeitures last spring, the storage building was filled with vehicles that were eventually sold. Today there are about a dozen, all waiting for processing. Now Andren tries to keep on top of things.

 

“We have a vehicle waiting for title transfer. That’ll be sold,” he says. “As vehicles become available for sale, I like to sell them to get them out of here.” 

 

There is no current forfeited vehicle for sale. But when they become available, they are listed on eBay under vehicles for sale, Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office and moved from storage to the sheriff’s parking lot at the Government Center where they can be inspected by online bidders.  

 

“We remove the license plates and go through them to make sure there’s no personal identifying information,” says Andren. “Then  they’re listed and sold “as is” with a clean title. The highest bid wins.”