Opinion ID: 3065355
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Other Government Evidence

Text: [15] The burden thus falls on the government to show that it had probable cause to institute a forfeiture action against the defendant currency, independent of the tainted and suppressed evidence. $493,850.00 in U.S. Currency, 518 F.3d at 1169; Driver, 776 F.2d at 812; One (1) 1971 Harley-Davidson Motorcycle, 508 F.2d at 351 (holding that evidence may be introduced in a forfeiture proceeding if it was “derived independently” of an unconstitutional seizure of the res). In other words, the government must demonstrate that at the time it instituted the forfeiture action it had “reasonable grounds,” separate from evidence connected to the illegal seizure of the defendant currency, for believing that the cash money was related to an illegal drug transaction. $493,850.00 in U.S. Currency, 518 F.3d at 1169; One (1) 1971 Harley-Davidson Motorcycle, 508 F.2d at 351. The evidence the government offers us fails to meet this standard. [16] The government points to the knowledge of UMCC’s marijuana sales that it gained from LAPD officers’ observations on the day of the search, independent of the search itself. These observations include Sergeant Lopez’s receipt of a flyer 4 Having excluded the Feil declaration on Fourth Amendment grounds, we need not reach UMCC’s other arguments against permitting the government to rely on the declaration, specifically that the government should be judicially estopped from so relying and that the declaration should be set aside on a rationale similar to that employed in Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377 (1968), and Safarik v. United States, 62 F.2d 892 (8th Cir. 1933). 494 UNITED STATES v. $186,416.00 IN U.S. CURRENCY advertising UMCC, his perception of the scent of marijuana inside the UMCC building, the individuals he saw leaving the Clinic with brown paper bags (as consistent with complaints of marijuana smokers in the neighborhood holding such bags), the statements that employees of UMCC made to Lopez indicating that the Clinic sold marijuana, and another officer’s corroborating observations. Although, taken together, this evidence may indicate, as the government contends, that UMCC was selling marijuana, the evidence does not reference the defendant currency and thus cannot alone establish any connection between UMCC’s marijuana sales and the currency. [17] According to the government, however, we must consider this evidence in conjunction with the lack of evidence suggesting that UMCC had any source of revenue apart from marijuana sales. On this logic, there was probable cause to believe that “any money found on the premises at UMCC represented proceeds of sales of marijuana, and was therefore forfeitable.” Yet under our precedent we cannot consider in a forfeiture proceeding the amount of currency that the government illegally seized. $493,850.00 in U.S. Currency, 518 F.3d at 1165 (citing $191,910.00 in U.S. Currency, 16 F.3d at 1059, 1065). This being so, we are left without a clue as to whether currency of an unknown amount discovered at UMCC was indeed revenue from the Clinic’s operations or was, for instance, a small amount of personal cash that an employee had acquired elsewhere and kept in a locked drawer at work. Because we are precluded from considering how much currency the LAPD illegally seized, we cannot agree with the government that the mere presence of currency, of any amount, at UMCC established probable cause to find that such currency was connected to marijuana sales. See $493,850.00 in U.S. Currency, 518 F.3d at 1165. Accordingly, the government has failed to show that it had probable cause to institute its forfeiture action against the defendant currency. UNITED STATES v. $186,416.00 IN U.S. CURRENCY 495