The Defendant Property has been the subject of over one hundred narcotics investigations (including

The Tewksbury, MA Police Department and the US Attorneys comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city Office comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city are persisting with a civil asset forfeiture claim of the Motel Caswell. They allege that controlled substance violations and numerous narcotics investigations are tied to Russell Caswell s property. The investigations appear, in part, triggered by Russell Caswell s attempts to deter drug usage at his motel by reporting suspicions of renters drug usage to the Tewksbury PD. Perhaps seeing an opportunity ( the property is estimated to be worth $1,000,000 ), the police enlisted the aid of the DEA to file a complaint for the forfeiture of the motel (if the forfeiture is successful, local law enforcement stand to pocket comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city as much as 80% of the proceeds through the DOJ s equitable sharing program) citing probable cause to believe that the Defendant Property was used or intended to be used to commit, or to facilitate comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city the commission of, a violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 , 846 , and/or 856 .
The Defendant Property has been the subject of over one hundred narcotics investigations (including investigations involving the trafficking, distribution, and possession of illegal narcotics) conducted by the TPD Criminal Bureau since 1994. (An average of about 6 investigations per year at the time of the affidavit)
The Institute for Justice ,  a libertarian public interest law firm representing Russell Caswell, notes that the arrests the government complains comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city of represent less than .0005 percent of the 125,000 rooms the Caswells have rented over that period of time.
Mr Caswell actively attempted to deter narcotics comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city usage at his motel by notifying the police of his suspicions as well as maintaining and employing a do not rent list for troublesome renters. Such actions could (and should) qualify Russell Caswell as an innocent owner .
If this sounds familiar, it might because comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city you ve been following accounts of the attempted Motel Caswell forfeiture. It might also be because the story line is strikingly similar to that of the Red Carpet Inn that helped pass the  Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA) .
Congress passed the  Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA) , in part, to stop government agencies from using civil asset forfeiture comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city as a more profitable eminent domain. comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city And while many of Henry Hyde s reforms were watered down, or disposed of, the innocent owner defense was an important reform that survived. It was written with the Red Carpet Motel in mind. And, it was written for future innocent owners comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city like Russell Caswell.
It is absurd that Russ and Pat Caswell are still fighting this forfeiture claim. And it is even more absurd that the Department of Justice is party to the claim. The Department of Justice was represented at the CAFRA hearings by former comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder.
We said before and we say again that there should be a uniform innocent owner defense available to claimants in all civil forfeiture cases. While the Supreme Court held in Bennis comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city v. Michigan that an innocent owner defense is not mandated by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, that does not mean Congress cannot enact such protection by statute. We think it should .
We support the enactment of a uniform innocent comfort inn and suites downtown kansas city owner defense. A person who does not know that his/her property is being used illegally, or who becomes aware of the illegal use but takes all reasonable steps to try to stop it, should not suffer the loss of the property through forfeiture.