Attorneys who fight the seizures acknowledge the victims aren't always role models. Months later, Patterson as arrested in a car with 22 rocks of crack cocaine, the Press said. Still, people have rights, attorneys say. Divers, now 19, did not possess drugs at the time, although he had been arrested months earlier and eventually pleaded guilty to possession with intent to deliver. You don't take the money if you can't prove it.
Officers issue a receipt when they seize property.
The owner can file a protest in court. Otherwise, money becomes part of the police drug fund. In more than half the seizures contested from January 1995 through June 1996, Grand Rapids police agreed to return at least some money, the Press reported. The police chief said it's possible, but rare, that his officers are too aggressive.