One of every three state civil asset forfeiture seizures happen in this county, pop. 17,692. Proponents say it combats the drug trade and saves taxpayer money. Critics say it’s highway robbery.
By Natalia Alamdari
Flatwater Free Press
Seward County routinely seizes money from motorists on Interstate 80, keeps the cash – and never convicts the drivers of a crime.
The county’s sheriff’s department and county attorney use this practice, known as civil asset forfeiture, so often that a third of all cases of this kind in Nebraska state courts come from Seward County, population 17,962, a Flatwater Free Press analysis of court records shows.
The county has hauled in $7.5 million in forfeited cash in the past five years, some of it from civil forfeitures that state lawmakers thought they banned in 2016.
In Seward County, nearly all civil forfeitures begin when a deputy stops an out-of-state driver on the county’s 24-mile stretch of Interstate 80. Much of this money ends up in law enforcement hands, after drivers – faced with a split-second choice between money or jail – often sign a form and abandon their cash.
Many in law enforcement, including Seward County Sheriff Mike Vance, say civil forfeiture is an important tool to take money out of criminal hands.
“The point is that we’re trying to dismantle these criminal organizations … if you take their money, you’re crippling their ability to conduct their criminal activity,” said Amy Blackburn, an assistant U.S. attorney.
Some defense attorneys and advocates say civil asset forfeiture is little more than a law enforcement money grab.
“Citizens can have their property taken from them without ever being accused of a crime, or convicted of a crime, and that is simply not our American system of justice,” said Louis Rulli, a University of Pennsylvania law professor.
Christopher Bouldin, pulled over in August 2020 for following too closely, didn’t know anything about civil asset forfeiture when he stood with his dog on the westbound shoulder of I-80. Seward County Sheriff’s deputies had just searched his rental van, finding no drugs or guns, but locating $18,000 in cash rolled in a blue sleeping bag.
They alleged it was drug money. He argued that it was for his trip to Colorado – he was driving west from Virginia – and for the potential purchase of a car.
Deputies zipped the cash in an evidence bag and then produced an abandonment form. They gave him a choice, Bouldin said.
Sign this form, give up the cash and continue toward Colorado. Don’t sign, and you’re subject to felony charges.
“I can’t believe I’m getting robbed,” Bouldin said he remembers thinking.
In the past decade, Seward has seized money in at least 90 state civil forfeiture cases, nearly double any other Nebraska county. In those cases, they initially seized a total of $2.2 million from motorists. (Other cases are tied to partnerships with federal law enforcement, while still others result in criminal charges, often when guns and drugs are also located.)
The $2 million eventually kept by the county was split, half to a state schools fund and half to a county law enforcement fund.
For the rest of this story, see this week’s Elgin Review.
