Strict state and federal guidelines dictate the process agencies must go through to seize and eventually spend the money.
All seizures are handled as civil lawsuits. If the state can prove money found at a crime scene was made through ill gotten ways it then becomes property of the agency that made the discovery and filed the necessary paperwork.
In Bell County, an average of two to three seizure cases flow through the court system each week, mostly for small amounts of cash or vehicles. Sometimes the suits are for larger amounts.
District Attorney Henry Garza said many of the cases are never contested, presumably because defendants with criminal charges could damage their cases by going on the record in a related civil case.
Garza said cases are often built against people with no visible employment who can purchase luxury items.
“We can begin to link and tie back that the person is involved in drugs,” he said. “That’s our burden of proof.”
The amount of money local agencies seize each year fluctuates. Last year was a good year for both Temple and Killeen compared to the previous year. The cities seized 83 percent and 72 percent more respectively.
In both cities the large increase was attributed to single cases - a raid in Temple on a small grocery store and a Killeen drug bust.
On Sept. 19, 2007, in Temple, police raided a store at 315 E. Central Ave. owned by Imran Aslam Khan. Inside the store, referred to on the street as Pooh’s Grocery, police found a box of pirated CDs under a counter between two cash registers.
In addition, police seized $33,277 in cash. Charges against Khan were eventually dropped, according to court documents, but the money that was confiscated was split between the Temple Police Department and the DA after a final judgment in 146th State District Court on March 3, 2008.
Killeen’s large seizure came after a drug bust on Jan. 26, 2006. Police officers armed with a search warrant for a property in the 4400 block of Abigail Drive confiscated 91 grams of Ecstasy, 956 grams of marijuana and $20,660 in cash.
In addition, other items were seized such as a 2001 red Ford Mustang, a 65-inch high definition television and a laptop computer.
Garza said property that is confiscated is always awarded to the law enforcement agencies.
Those items can either be stored, sold at auctions or used by the agency, said Capt. Lee Caufield of the Killeen Police Department.
After Killeen police took possession of the television, there was unusual interest in getting it back. That prompted police to take off the back cover. Inside, police found an additional $30,000 in cash.
Dahlia Denisse Cuevas was eventually given deferred adjudication on the drug charge. PB Griffin IV came forward and claimed the $30,000 found in the television.
Griffin said he earned the money at Haterproof Paint & Body, which he owned, and at his second job as the night manager and trainer at a Killeen gym.
He said the money was saved as a reward his family had offered for the capture of his brother’s killer. Griffin said he hid the money in the back of the television because his previous bank deposits had been seized to pay his back child support payments.
The entire $50,660 was eventually awarded to Killeen.
Garza said his office uses the seized funds in a variety of ways, including paying for training courses or paying for an expensive expert to testify at an important trial.
The digital video presenters, similar to overhead projectors, used in the district courtrooms were all purchased with seized funds.
In the past, other agencies have purchased things like bulletproof vests.
Killeen has used its seizure money for big ticket items usually not attainable with traditional budget funds.
Several years ago the department purchased a video enhancement system for about $100,000. The technology can be used to “clean up” low resolution video.
It’s the type of equipment used on television shows but not widely used by local law enforcement, Caufield said.
Last year, Killeen purchased a three-dimensional video recreation scanning device capable of digitizing and re-creating a crime scene.
The price tag for that piece of technology was about $150,000 Caufield said.
