Kansas City - Judge approves settlement in lawsuit over seized assets

OFF THE WIRE
A judge approved a settlement Friday in which Kansas City police will pay about $1.2 million to 50 people who have contended that police improperly seized their property.
The order ended a decade-long class-action lawsuit brought against the Kansas City Police Department by plaintiffs who alleged that police illegally handed their money and property to the federal government for forfeiture, rather than running it though a state system that would have given money to schools.
Lawyer George Barton, who represented the class, told Jackson County Circuit Judge Brian C. Wimes that all 50 class members who submitted valid claims would be paid in full.
They are receiving an amount equal to the value of the currency and property that was seized from them,” Barton said. “So this is a fair, reasonable and adequate settlement.”
Lawyers representing police said the department admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to the settlement terms to avoid the uncertainties of a trial.
“Because of the amount and size of a significant number of claims, there was significant risk and exposure,” said Travis Salmon. “This is a reasonable and fair settlement agreement.”
Because the class members, and not school districts, sued the Police Department, the settlement money will go to them, not to education.
Kansas City restaurant owner George Ricketts, who represented class members at the hearing, said the settlement was fair and asked the judge to approve the agreement.
Ricketts lost a BMW and more than $130,000 and other property and cash in April 1996 when police raided his home, convinced he was a drug dealer. An appeals court later threw out his conviction.
Under the terms of the settlement, he will be paid $200,000. Ricketts declined to speak about the settlement after the hearing.
Another lead defendant, Albert Raymond Pearsall of Albuquerque, N.M., will be paid $73,102.
The names of other class members who will be paid under the settlement were not filed with the court Friday.
Separate from those payments to the plaintiffs, Barton and his firm will be paid more than $1.3 million in legal fees and $99,370 in expenses.
The issue driving the settlement came to light in a Kansas City Star series published in May 2000, “To Protect and Collect,” which exposed how police circumvented state laws by turning over millions of dollars in alleged drug money they had seized to the federal government. Federal agencies kept most of the money and returned a percentage to the Police Department.
State law, however, required that forfeited money be used for public education.
In January 2001, a Missouri appeals court ruled that Kansas City police had to return $34,000 to an imprisoned drug felon. Lawyers filed the class-action suit a couple of weeks later.
Police soon changed their forfeiture procedures. They say they now run every case through state court unless a federal judge signs a warrant demanding assets in a particular case.
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/04/08/2787261/judge-approves-settlement-in-lawsuit.html