President Trump has signed into a law a bill reforming the use of civil asset forfeiture by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The bill passed both houses of Congress unanimously this year.
The bill was partially inspired by the case of Andrew Clyde. In April 2013, Clyde’s gun shop in Athens, Georgia, was doing amazing business. In response to fear that the Obama administration may limit access to firearms, Clyde’s store, Clyde Armory, was virtually empty.
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After pleading guilty last month to not having workers compensation coverage for his employees, an Ohio man has been ordered to pay almost $57,000 in restitution and serve three years of probation.
Eric L. Hughes, age 53, is a contractor based in Holland, a suburb of Toledo in north-west Ohio. According to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Hughes has been operating in the Toledo area since 1993 under the business names “Eric L Hughes Sr” and “Idp Maintenance.” The BBB estimates Hughes’ companies generate about $70,000 per year in revenue.
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In January 2016, police officers searched Ovide Ned’s car during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas. After they found a bottle of opioid painkillers, police charged Ned, then aged 40, with drug possession. Ned had $955 on his person at the time. Officers seized this money as well.
Once Ned was able to prove he had a valid prescription for the medication, the criminal charges against him were dropped. The money, however, was never returned.
Angela Beavers, the chief civil asset forfeiture prosecutor at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said that despite the prescription, Ned was “obviously selling the pills.” She explained that drug dealers would often obtain prescriptions for the meds they were selling from pain clinics.
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A Georgia man arrested earlier this year on charges of workers compensation insurance fraud now faces six additional counts of insurance fraud and violating state insurance reporting laws.
In January, Bob Coleman, age 69, a county commissioner for Glynn County, Georgia, was arrested together with his wife Sherry, age 59, after a yearlong investigation into their business practices. The couple together ran Coleman Insurance, and Bob Coleman was a respected member of the community. He was elected to the Glynn County Commission three times, and the couple has lived in the area for their whole lives.
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On January 28, Oscar Osorio was driving a Honda Civic through Alachua County in northern Florida when he was pulled over. Deputy Jasper Stephenson, a member of the Alachua County Drug Task Force Domestic Highway Enforcement Team, had observed Osorio tailgating another vehicle in violation of Florida state statutes.
Osorio showed Deputy Stephenson his Mexican identification card, but he did not have a valid driver’s license on him. Together with Osorio in the car was Belisario Osorio-Santiago (no relationship was specified in reports); Osario explained to the deputy that he and Osorio-Santiago had driven from Oxnard near Los Angeles in California to St. Pete Beach in central Florida to meet a friend.
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Criminal Defense and Civil Forfeiture Blog