The lawsuit against the Police Department was brought by Karpierz, who ended up pleading guilty in December in state court to a possession charge. He is serving a five-year sentence in a Missouri prison. This would appear to be a state case in which state forfeiture laws would apply, said his attorney, Jim McMullin. The case applies to a dispute, reported in January by The Kansas City Star, over whether Missouri police are skirting state laws, with the help of federal agencies, and keeping millions of dollars in confiscated drug money. By involving a federal agency, local police can get back up to 80 percent of the proceeds.
State law prohibits local police from transferring the seized money to a federal agency.
Instead it is supposed to go through circuit court, where a judge decides how the money is to be distributed, usually to education funds. Federal guidelines also say that if a case is tried in state court, any seized cash and property should follow the criminal case. The Kansas City police and the DEA did not comment on the case. He said he would schedule a nonjury trial, probably in a month. The hearing occurred the same day as an announcement from leaders of the General Assembly that a committee was named to study the question of asset forfeitures, the legal term for the official taking of property and cash involved with drug crimes.