Court Opinion

ID: 9768731
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 13:46:20.091769+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:03:22.321261
License: Public Domain

WINTERSHEIMER, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur with the majority opinion which affirms the forfeiture of the vehicle but dissent because I do not believe it is necessary to remand any part of this case for further proceedings.
K.R.S. 218A.410(j) controls the situation relative to the forfeiture of the currency. The question of whether the prosecution met its burden in regard to the statute is within the sound discretion of the trial judge. It was essentially a question of fact and I do not believe the trial judge was clearly erroneous or abused his discretion in his determination. The trial judge was not required to accept the statements of Osborne about the cash being a loan for a downpayment on a house. There was sufficient other evidence for the trial judge to disbelieve this story. I do not believe it is appropriate for this Court to set aside the findings of the trial judge under the circumstance presented here.
The language of the statute is clear and it does not require further judicial interpretation, only application to the appropriate fact situation.
$6,507 in cash was found in the trailer after the packages of marijuana were discovered. Approximately $4,000 to $5,000 came from Osborne’s purse. Some of the money was in wads of $100 packages and some was simply wadded up. The $100 packets were of fives, tens and twenties. There was testimony by purchaser-witness Combs that he had just paid $325 at least in cash for some marijuana from Osborne’s former husband. The fact that there was approximately $325 in cash given to the defendant for the purchase of marijuana and that there were two pounds of marijuana packaged in quarter-pound bags found in the house, as well as the small denominations of bills found in Osborne’s purse, was sufficient probable cause for a forfeiture of the money. United States v. Three Hundred Nineteen Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty Dollars in U.S. Currency, 620 F.Supp. 1474 (N.D.Ga.1985); United States v. Forty-one Thousand Three Hundred and Five Dollars in U.S. Currency and Travelers Checks, 802 F.2d 1339 (11th Cir.1986). It was Osborne’s burden to rebut the presumption that there was a con*287nection between the seized currency and other property and the criminal activity. The evidence she presented failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that there was no connection between the money and the controlled substances.
The testimony was that the alleged $5,000 borrowed from Aytes was paid to them in One Hundred Dollar bills, but the $5,000 found in the trailer, in her purse, was mainly small bills. The presumption of the statute is not overcome by evidence of a questionable nature which does not leave the mind impressed to any high degree with its truth. See Drake v. Drake, Ky.App., 721 S.W.2d 728 (1986); Livingston v. Fields, 311 Ky. 714, 225 S.W.2d 317 (1949); United States v. One 1986 Mercedes Benz, 660 F.Supp. 410 (S.D.N.Y.1987).
Under the circumstances of this case, I do not believe remand is necessary. I would affirm the forfeitures in all respects.
SPAIN, J., joins in this opinion.