St. Louis police kept seized cash that should have been returned
December 18, 2008
By Jeremy Kohler and Joe Mahr

St. Louis — For years, St. Louis police wrongly kept and earned interest on millions of dollars seized in the arrests of suspects, the department admitted Wednesday.

It amassed a cache of up to about $6 million, disregarding laws requiring that money seized from a suspect be returned to its owner, used to satisfy back child support or forfeited to a state school fund.

The revelation came during questioning from a Post-Dispatch reporter after a vote on a money transfer at a Board of Police Commissioners meeting.

The board voted 5-0, with little discussion, to spend $188,000 from its budget to cover improper spending from interest the department had earned on the fund.

Under questioning after the meeting, officials acknowledged the full scope of the problem, which they said had been discovered in a department audit last year. The department said it is already returning the fund's money, with interest, to its owners.

With those efforts under way, "the department is making every effort to right a wrong," said spokeswoman Erica Van Ross.

The development showed it wasn't just vehicles that people couldn't get back after arrests in St. Louis.

Earlier this year, the newspaper found that police routinely seized cars from suspects and sent the vehicles to a private tow lot holding a lucrative contract. When prosecutors dropped the cases, suspects still had to pay tow and storage fees, with the department at times unfairly adding delays that boosted fees.

The FBI and IRS continue to investigate the department's ties to the private tow lot, which provided freebies and deep discounts of cars to some officers and then-Chief Joe Mokwa's daughter.

Mokwa retired under pressure in July after the revelations, and the Post-Dispatch later found the lot had not paid $700,000 owed taxpayers, with police failing to see or act upon evidence of it in their own files.

That revelation then led to criticism of the department's oversight, and a call by Gov. Matt Blunt for a comprehensive state audit. That audit is ongoing.

These were not the first — or last — controversies involving seized evidence. Over the last two years, the department acknowledged that money was missing from its evidence room, and that officers misused World Series tickets that had been seized from scalpers.

Just last week, federal authorities accused two officers in a high-profile undercover unit of pocketing nearly $30,000 in cash during a drug bust, and said an investigation that includes other officers was continuing.

Defense attorneys said they have complained for years that the department kept their clients' money long after prosecutors had passed on the 14-day window to file formal seizure lawsuits. Such suits are rarely filed unless a substantial sum is at stake.

"It was a way to mess with who they considered to be bad people," said David Stokely, a St. Louis-area defense lawyer.

If prosecutors pass on forfeiture cases, the law requires police to keep only the money required as evidence. The rest is supposed to be applied to a suspect's unpaid child support, or given back.

Instead, the department kept the cash in a checking account. It grew from $1.8 million in 2000 to a peak of nearly $6 million in 2007, according to figures provided by police. The department reports it now has $3.9 million in the account.

Chris Goodson, president of the Board of Police Commissioners, said the unpaid money was "a concern" but noted that a department audit unit created last year had found and corrected the error.

Police officials were unable to explain how, for years, the department missed what critics say were clear violations of state law.

Tim Hogan, a St. Louis-area defense lawyer, called the revelation "scary." He said police had a "slush fund, and they've done with it what they pleased, but none of it belonged to them. That's what the mob does."

Lawmakers have long given police and prosecutors the means to convert ill-gotten property to public use.

The process has long been controversial in Missouri and across the country. Two decades ago, St. Louis-area police routinely took suspects' property and then negotiated cash "settlements" — even in cases where criminal charges weren't filed.

The Missouri Legislature outlawed the practice, requiring police to report all seizures and prosecutors to prove the property was used in crimes. Even if a link is proven, the proceeds are to be given to schools, not police.

But St. Louis police took their own course.

The department's Asset Removal Unit built an account as an endowment of sorts, spending only the interest for things ranging from purchases from Verizon Wireless to services of a locksmith, according to department records.

But last year, a department audit determined that police had long erred. In looking just at money seized since 2004, it said that police:

- Wrongly kept money from suspects. Officials actively began looking for rightful owners this year and, so far, have returned $475,128 to 121 people. It's unclear how much more is owed.

- Shorted families owed child support. The department recently sent $355,631 to the Family Support Payment Center to cover suspects' unpaid support.

- Should have sent $123,790 to a state schools fund. It's unclear whether the money was from cases in which judges ordered forfeiture of the cash.

- Misspent $165,222 in interest money. Chief Daniel Isom said Wednesday the purchases were for legitimate police needs but not allowed under state law.

"It's clear they didn't understand the process and procedures for spending that money," said Isom, named chief less than three months ago.

The department decided to keep $82,644, for now, as evidence in pending cases.

And St. Louis police hope to keep other money in a roundabout way, through the federal seizure law.

Department officials have asked federal prosecutors to get federal judges to approve the seizure of $1.1 million. If so, police would get 80 percent of that back — and could legally spend it on department needs.

Beyond all those figures, the department is still trying to figure out what to do with money it still has from seizures dating before 2004.