IAPE Evidence Blog

Star Tri­bune (Min­neapo­lis, MN)
BYLINE: RANDY FURST; STAFF WRITER, STAR TRIBUNE (Mpls.-St. Paul)

St. Paul, MN

From cash to jew­elry to a 9 mm pis­tol, prop­erty that was improp­erly seized or mis­han­dled is sent back.

When the Metro Gang Strike Force recov­ered stolen goods or seized people’s prop­erty — some­times ille­gally — many of the own­ers never saw it again.

Much of it dis­ap­peared into a badly orga­nized evi­dence room so inse­cure that when offi­cials dis­cov­ered its con­di­tion last year they asked the news media not to report it for fear of a break-in.

Now, seven months after rev­e­la­tions of mis­con­duct within the elite anti-gang unit prompted state offi­cials to shut it down, claims han­dlers have begun return­ing prop­erty to own­ers, albeit a few years late.

The prop­erty returned so far includes almost $5,000 in cash, an assort­ment of cars, elec­tron­ics, jew­elry, and a hand­gun. In some cases, claims man­agers found that the Strike Force hadn’t prop­erly seized or sought for­fei­ture of the items.

In other cases, they deter­mined that the seized prop­erty had been stolen, but that the Strike Force had neglected to return it to its orig­i­nal owner.

“The Metro Gang Strike Force was not too good at fol­low­ing through,” said Kori Land, an attor­ney for the Strike Force’s Advi­sory Board, of one such case.

After the unit’s shut­down, Bud Shaver, chair­man of the advi­sory board, orga­nized trans­fer of the remain­ing prop­erty into a new, secure stor­age facility.

The League of Min­nesota Cities Trust Fund, based in St. Paul, is the insur­ance agent for 854 munic­i­pal­i­ties in Min­nesota. Last year the fund han­dled 5,000 insur­ance claims. But “prob­a­bly the largest con­sumer of our staff time,” has been the claims filed by peo­ple against the Strike Force, says Doug Gronli, claims man­ager for the fund.

U.S. Mag­is­trate Judge Arthur Boy­lan last month ordered the league to release copies of claim records the Star Tri­bune requested last year under the state Data Prac­tices Act. How­ever, claimants could request that their cases not be disclosed.

Hand­guns, vehi­cles, cash

As of Thurs­day, the league’s Strike Force claims hot line had received 94 calls, and 35 peo­ple filled out claims forms. The news­pa­per reviewed 20 claim files. Thir­teen addi­tional claimants asked that the league not dis­close their cases. Two other claims came in so recently that offi­cials had yet to deter­mine whether they could release the information.

Apart from the hot line process, Land over­saw an effort to deal with 51 seized cars the Strike Force had when it was shut down.

One was returned to an owner who suc­cess­fully chal­lenged its for­fei­ture but hadn’t got­ten it back. Offi­cials returned two because the own­ers hadn’t been prop­erly served with for­fei­ture notices. Three stolen vehi­cles were returned to orig­i­nal own­ers. Nine went to lenders or sell­ers who had liens on them when they were seized.

Six­teen cars deter­mined to be prop­erly for­feited will be auc­tioned. A bicy­cle also was returned to its owner.

Here are exam­ples of some of the pub­lic hot line claims and what was returned:

Pis­tol was held for 7 years More than nine years after a pis­tol was stolen from Jerome Weg­worth Jr.‘s vehi­cle while he was parked at a Maple­wood bowl­ing alley, and more than seven years after the Strike Force found it in a raid of a St. Paul home, he got it back.

The Force told Weg­worth in 2002 that it had recov­ered the 9-millimeter Tau­rus hand­gun, but despite his repeated calls, it was never returned, he said in his claim.

Jer­maine Booker, a Still­wa­ter prison inmate, wrote that in Jan­u­ary 2008, Strike Force offi­cers kicked in the door of his St. Paul apart­ment, demand­ing to know where he’d hid­den drugs and guns. They found noth­ing, he wrote, adding:

“Then they punched on me and told me to get out [of ] this state and go back to Chicago.”

He said offi­cers took a lap­top, cell phones, video games and $2,100. He said he was arrested but released with­out charges. Six months later, Booker said, he was arrested for a pro­ba­tion vio­la­tion “not related to this inci­dent with the Strike Force” and sent to Stillwater.

A claims adjuster said Shaver decided to keep the prop­erty in evi­dence stor­age, so the league offered Booker $500 for it, and he accepted. The league said the cash was prop­erly for­feited, but Booker has appealed that deci­sion to an admin­is­tra­tive law judge.

The league sent Paul McDavid of Min­neapo­lis a check for $1,312 that the Strike Force seized from him last Feb­ru­ary. A claims adjuster could find no record show­ing that he had received a legally required for­fei­ture notice.

The league also returned $3,177 to a claimant whose name was with­held at his request. Again, the Force had seized the money but did not serve the per­son with a for­fei­ture notice, accord­ing to Land.

No charges after seizure

Angel Gatlin of Rich­field claimed that in 2007 the Strike Force took prop­erty worth $10,000 and beat her husband.

“There were no charges filed, so the prop­erty should be given back,” said Gronli, the league official.

The prop­erty includes a lap­top, cam­eras, a cell phone and a pis­tol. Evi­dently, offi­cers found no drugs.

Duane R. Axtman of Axtman Auto in St. Paul sold a 2001 GMC Denali in Novem­ber 2007 to a woman whose house was raided a month later. The Strike Force seized the SUV, though Axtman still held a lien on it.

“Even though she was never charged, they kept the vehi­cle,” Axtman wrote. The league said the woman was prop­erly served the for­fei­ture notice, but Land said the Strike Force board pol­icy is to return seized vehi­cles to lien­hold­ers, so Axtman will get it back.

Selvig Jew­el­ers in Cot­tage Grove lost $3,500 in jew­elry in a 2006 bur­glary. In 2007, the Strike Force raided a Min­neapo­lis house and recov­ered two rings and a bracelet from that bur­glary. The Force never returned the jew­elry to Selvig, but now the claim-handlers have.

“After the crim­i­nal case was closed, it should have been returned,” said Land.

The league denied 17 claims, 11 because an agency other than the Force seized the prop­erty, and the hot line pro­gram was lim­ited to Strike Force seizures.

The league denied other claims because a judge had val­i­dated the for­fei­ture or adjusters could find no evi­dence of a seizure.

Randy Furst — 612 – 673-7382

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org