2023 New York Laws › PEN - Penal › Part 4 - Administrative Provisions › Title W - Provisions Relating to Firearms, Fireworks, Pornography Equipment and Vehicles Used in the Transportation of Gambling Records › Article 410 - Seizure and Forfeiture of Equipment Used in Promoting Pornography › 410.00 - Seizure and Forfeiture of Equipment Used in Photographing, Filming, Producing, Manufacturing, Projecting or Distributing Pornographic Still or Motion

§  410.00  Seizure  and  forfeiture  of equipment used in photographing,
filming, producing, manufacturing, projecting or distributing
pornographic still or motion pictures.
1. Any peace officer, acting pursuant to his special duties, or police
  officer of this state may seize any equipment used in the photographing,
  filming,   printing,   producing,   manufacturing   or   projecting   of
  pornographic still or motion pictures and may seize any vehicle or other
  means  of  transportation,  other  than  a  vehicle  or  other  means of
  transportation used by any person as a common carrier in the transaction
  of business as such common carrier, used in  the  distribution  of  such
  obscene prints and articles and such equipment or vehicle or other means
  of  transportation shall be subject to forfeiture as hereinafter in this
  section provided.
2. The seized property shall be delivered by  the  police  officer  or
  peace  officer  having  made  the seizure to the custody of the district
  attorney of the county wherein the seizure was made, except that in  the
  cities  of  New  York, Yonkers and Buffalo, the seized property shall be
  delivered to the custody  of  the  police  department  of  such  cities,
  together  with  a  report  of  all  the  facts  and circumstances of the
  seizure.
3. It shall be the duty of the district attorney of the county wherein
  the seizure was made, if elsewhere than in the cities  of  New  York  or
  Buffalo,  and  where the seizure is made in either such city it shall be
  the duty of the corporation counsel of the city,  to  inquire  into  the
  facts  of the seizure so reported to him and if it appears probable that
  a forfeiture has been incurred,  for  the  determination  of  which  the
  institution  of  proceedings in the supreme court is necessary, to cause
  the proper proceedings to be commenced and prosecuted, at any time after
  thirty days from the  date  of  seizure,  to  declare  such  forfeiture,
  unless,   upon   inquiry  and  examination  such  district  attorney  or
  corporation counsel decides that such proceedings can  not  probably  be
  sustained  or  that  the ends of public justice do not require that they
  should be instituted or prosecuted, in which case, the district attorney
  or corporation counsel shall cause such seized property to  be  returned
  to the owner thereof.
4.  Notice  of  the  institution of the forfeiture proceeding shall be
  served either (a) personally on the owners of the seized property or (b)
  by registered mail to the owners' last known address and by  publication
  of  the  notice  once  a  week  for  two successive weeks in a newspaper
  published or circulated in the county wherein the seizure was made.
5. Forfeiture shall not be adjudged where the  owners  established  by
  preponderance  of  the evidence that (a) the use of such seized property
  was not intentional on the  part  of  any  owner,  or  (b)  said  seized
  property  was used by any person other than an owner thereof, while such
  seized property was  unlawfully  in  the  possession  of  a  person  who
  acquired  possession  thereof  in  violation of the criminal laws of the
  United States, or of any state.
6. The district attorney or the police department  having  custody  of
  the  seized  property,  after such judicial determination of forfeiture,
  shall, by a public notice of at least five  days,  sell  such  forfeited
  property  at  public  sale.  The  net  proceeds  of any such sale, after
  deduction of the lawful  expenses  incurred,  shall  be  paid  into  the
  general  fund of the county wherein the seizure was made except that the
  net proceeds of the sale of property seized in the cities  of  New  York
  and  Buffalo  shall  be  paid  into the respective general funds of such
  cities.
7. Whenever any person interested in any property which is seized  and
  declared  forfeited  under  the  provisions of this section files with a

  justice of the supreme  court  a  petition  for  the  recovery  of  such
  forfeited  property,  the  justice of the supreme court may restore said
  forfeited property upon such terms and conditions as he deems reasonable
  and  just,  if  the  petitioner  establishes  either  of the affirmative
  defenses set forth in subdivision five of  this  section  and  that  the
  petitioner  was  without  personal or actual knowledge of the forfeiture
  proceeding.  If the petition be filed after the sale  of  the  forfeited
  property,  any  judgment  in favor of the petitioner shall be limited to
  the net proceeds of such sale, after deduction of  the  lawful  expenses
  and  costs  incurred  by  the  district  attorney,  police department or
  corporation counsel.
8. No suit or action under this section for wrongful seizure shall  be
  instituted  unless  such  suit  or  action is commenced within two years
  after the time when the property was seized.
9. For the purposes of this section  only,  a  pornographic  still  or
  motion  picture, is defined as a still or motion picture showing acts of
  sexual intercourse or acts of sexual perversion. This section shall  not
  be construed as applying to bona fide medical photographs or films.