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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MeDroogies who wrote (2493)	4/25/1999 10:35:00 PM
From: freeus	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 13062

Look at this: And you will see why I am so negative and devoid of hope for peace in our time: From the Danville (KY) Advocate Messenger March 30, 1999 Government seizes widow's property $240,000 cash stash was from 'hard work' By VICKI STEVENS Staff Writer FLATWOODS - When police raided Estel Rogers' home in 1997, they found by some accounts nearly $240,000 in cash, most of it hidden away in a blue bag in her bedroom. Rogers, an elderly widow who lives in a modest frame house in the Flatwoods community of Lincoln County, claims that the money came from a lifetime of hard work - from farming, logging and selling handmade rugs and quilts. "When I worked and made it, I'd go and put it in my satchel,'' Rogers says of the money, noting that her father didn't believe in banks and taught her not to trust them either. The federal government didn't buy her story, though, and filed a civil forfeiture action last summer alleging that the money came from drug trafficking. An order signed Dec. 10 by U.S. District Judge Karl S. Forester allows the government to take the cash along with Rogers' house and 38 acres of land - even though Rogers has not been tried or convicted. "She's 80 years old, and they're going to put an 80-year-old woman out,'' says Rogers' son, Gary. ''The United States is no longer a free country. There's other countries around that have more rights than us.'' The order requires $236,925 in currency to be forfeited to the government, along with five tracts of land valued at $92,500, and 24 assorted firearms. The cash includes $232,309 that was seized from Rogers and $4,621 seized from her daughter, Lela McWhorter, who lives nearby. McWhorter's trailer and 13 acres of land are among the five tracts that the government will sell. Also included is 1 and 3/4 acres in the name of Lula Delaney. All of the property is located on Flatwoods School Road and Old Bee Lick Road south of Crab Orchard. Rogers says the U.S. Marshall's Office has given her until April 15 to move out of the house where she's lived most of her life and where she raised 12 children and five grandkids. "She said she'd been in her home all of her life, and she didn't want to leave it,'' says Rogers' daughter, Donna Simpson. ''It's a crying shame.'' Rogers could buy the place back but claims she doesn't have the money. And her son fears that if the family were to buy it back, the government might come back in a few years and take it again. Bill Miracle of Lincoln Realty, which has the property listed for sale, says a few prospective buyers have called, but so far there have been no serious inquiries. "Mom has worked like a dog all of her life in the log woods for what she had. Anybody that knows Estel Rogers will tell you that she was a hard-working woman in her younger days,'' says Simpson. Rogers is in poor health now, though. She has heart trouble and underwent a colostomy due to colon cancer. "Could someone tell me how an 80-year-old woman could be growing pot plants? I think we should take a good hard look at our government, don't you,'' says Simpson. Although the federal government pursued the forfeiture action, it did not prosecute Rogers on drug charges. However, a Lincoln County grand jury indicted Rogers, her son Gary, and McWhorter, and those charges are still pending in Lincoln Circuit Court. Rogers' attorney, Mark Stanziano of Somerset, says the forfeiture law is aimed at preventing drug dealers from benefitting from illegal acts. The problem that many people have with it, though, is that maybe a person should be found guilty first. But David Olinger, an assistant U.S. attorney who handles forfeiture cases for the government, says it's a civil action, independent from criminal prosecution. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ eGroup home: egroups.com Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com