Operation Painkiller--AKA Operation Used Car Lot

According to this article, New Jersey prosecutors seized 3 vehicles from the family of a young 19 year old man, Gerard Trapp Jr., a first time offender,  who was charged conspiracy to possess the prescription medication Oxycodone.  He was arrested as a result of the Morris County's "Operation Painkiller" crackdown:

Parent Gerard Trapp, a Bloomfield police officer, said the seizure of three family cars is extreme, since neither he nor his wife knew of any alleged drug use by their son, and Trapp Jr. was charged with a relatively minor offense. He was never accused of being a dealer or supplier.

"To take three cars over a conspiracy charge is over the top," the father said.

The prosecutor's office seized in July the family's 1992 Cadillac SDV, a 1995 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, and a 1994 Toyota Camry. Trapp said the prosecutor's office initially told him the three cars could be bought back for $3,000 and have since lowered the amount to $1,500 for all three vehicles. But the Trapps have not bought back their own vehicles.

Hat tip Overlawyered and Nobody's Business.

While outrageous, the seizure of cars and other property incident to arrest is a common procedure, and in some cases, the property seized and sometimes forfeited has little if anything to do with the alleged crime.  As an Assistant Public Defender I spent countless hours on the phone attempting to determine the location of my client's cars and other property and trying to ascertain how to go about retrieving the property.  It was a frustrating experience, to say the least. 

And, as this article explains, it's a process that is easily subject to abuse:

Polk County, Iowa sheriff's deputies and employees of a local towing company purchased seized vehicles at cut-rate prices as low as one cent.

Earlier this month Iowa's Attorney General charged two fifteen-year veteran officers with "felonious misconduct" for falsifying sales receipts so that R&R Towing employees could buy vehicles before they were offered to the public at auction.

I find the trend to allow the increased forfeiture of vehicles troubling, including the new laws which  allow forfeiture in drunk driving cases, such as the NYPD initiative described here.  For those interested in recent trends in New York regarding vehicle forfeiture, there's a great summary of current developments here at the New York State Defenders Association's website.