ACLU Supports Attorney General’s Refusal To Let District Attorney Use Wrongfully Seized Assets To Pay For Her Own Legal Defense; County or State Should Be Held Accountable
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dotty Griffith, Public Education Director, ACLU of Texas, (512) 478-7300 x 106; [email protected]
AUSTIN – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Texas today welcomed Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s opinion denying a request by Shelby County District Attorney Lynda K. Russell to use money she allegedly seized illegally from motorists to defend herself against a federal lawsuit accusing her of stripping drivers – almost all of them black – of their property without ever charging them with a crime.
View the Texas AG opinion
Download the ACLU brief (PDF)
Download a copy of the lawsuit naming Russell (PDF)
“We applaud the AG’s decision to reject the district attorney’s request to use assets that are the very subject of the litigation to defend herself against these charges of illegal activity,” said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas. Russell is accused of participating in a scheme in which authorities stopped without cause mostly African-Americans driving along a state highway in Tenaha, TX. The lawsuit further charges that motorists were asked if they carried cash. If so, they were ordered to sign over the cash to the town or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes.
Last fall, the ACLU and the ACLU of Texas filed a brief with the Texas Attorney General’s office opposing a request by Russell to use the seized money to defend herself against a federal lawsuit accusing her of illegal seizures. The brief also argued that either the county or state must be held accountable for Russell’s actions and cannot decline to represent her.
In the opinion issued Wednesday, the Attorney General agreed that Russell was not permitted to use the forfeited assets to defend herself, but also did not require either the county or the state to pay for her legal defense.
"Attorney General Abbott's conclusion that Russell is on her own and that neither the county nor state are responsible defies common sense," said Chloe Cockburn, an attorney with the ACLU's Racial Justice Program. "The government should be held accountable for the illegal actions of its officials."
Officials in Tenaha have claimed that the seizures are a legitimate use of the state’s asset forfeiture laws as part of a battle against drug trafficking. But according to the lawsuit, more than 140 people, almost all of whom were African-American, turned over their assets to police without cause between June 2006 and June 2008.
“The misuse of asset forfeiture laws by local officials is exacerbated by inadequate oversight,” said Matt Simpson, Policy Strategist for the ACLU of Texas. “The legislature must squarely address these reported civil rights violations via reform of forfeiture laws that strengthen protection against unconstitutional conduct and racial profiling.”
