CA 3d District on Asset Forfeiture

The city of Sacramento may not seize the assets of individuals involved in drug and prostitution offenses under standards more favorable to the government than those required by California's state-level regulations on the same subject, California's Third District Court of Appeal held today in Hernandez v. City of Sacramento, C047180.

(Update: This case is no longer good law as of 2007, although the basic holding of Hernandez -- i.e., that local forfeiture laws are preempted by the state law in this area -- was upheld in the California Supreme Court case of O'Connell v. City of Stockton (2007) 41 Cal.4th 1061.)

This opinion does a great job of laying out the history of the laws around asset forfeiture in California and under the federal regime. At one point, the opinion notes, California allowed asset forfeiture for drug-related offenses even when a crime had not been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Today, however, the state-level provisions "include the requirement of a criminal conviction, proof beyond a reasonable doubt of the conditions justifying forfeiture, and the protection of innocent parties who hold an interest in the vehicle."

Sacramento's city-level law, which was technically a "nuisance abatement" ordinance but had the real-world effect of acting as a forfeiture law, was different: "A court or jury need only find by a preponderance of the evidence that one predicate offense has been committed to order a forfeiture. (Sacramento Mun. Code, § 8.14.060(E).) The ordinance does not require the offender to be convicted before forfeiture occurs or that the forfeiture be proportional to the gravity of the offense. There are no exceptions provided for 'innocent owners,' spouses, employers, or common carriers."

In a nutshell, the Court of Appeal finds that California law preempts the Sacramento ordinance, so Sacramento may not set its own standards in this area.

(Oddly enough, I was just writing about the tax implications of asset forfeiture earlier today in this post.)