Trey Chafin Gladden
Poss. Up To Half-Ounce Marijuana, Poss. Marijuana Paraphernalia, Safecracking, Second-Degree Burglary JACKSON COUNTY
Heidi Lynn Blevins (F) Poss. Marijuana (Half-Ounce to 1.5-Ounces) BUNCOMBE COUNTY
Tobias Nathaniel Dillard
Ernesto Maldonado
(F) Maintain A Vehicle/Dwelling/Place For (Drugs), (F) PWISD Marijuana, (F) Poss. Marijuana BUNCOMBE COUNTY
Child Support JACKSON COUNTY
Amber Lynne Miller Non-Support Of A Child SWAIN COUNTY
Jody Michael Smith Child Support HAYWOOD COUNTY
POT BUST CONTINUED The Pay off Hart’s son told authorities during the raid that his father hadn’t worked an actual job for around three years, according to federal documents. But just as drug money is a source of revenue for outlaws, a portion of forfeiture funds benefits arresting agencies also. Citing forfeiture laws, federal prosecutors are now attempting to seize not only Hart’s property, but also the $19,769 confiscated from his home. Like marijuana laws, forfeiture laws have been widely condemned, largely by defense attorney and civil rights groups. Civil asset forfeiture laws allow police to seize the property of anyone they allege is involved in a crime. Those agencies may then keep that property or sell it. Critics say it allows police to take property from suspects who are presumed innocent. “Police abuse of civil asset forfeiture laws has shaken our nation’s conscience,” reads the American Civil Liberties Union webpage on forfeitures. “Owners need not ever be arrested or convicted of a crime for their cash, cars, or even real estate to be taken away permanently by the government.” Forfeiture laws, according to ACLU, were originally designed to help police cripple major criminal outfits, like the mafia, by diverting their resources. 14
“But today, aided by deeply flawed federal and state laws, many police departments use forfeiture to benefit their bottom lines, making seizures motivated by profit rather than crimefighting,” the group says. The laws enabling law enforcement to seek civil asset forfeiture are as unpopular as some of the drug laws they thrive off of today. A year before Hart’s case, the libertarian Cato Institute found in a poll that approximately 84 percent of Americans oppose the practice of forfeiture. Yet despite the opposition, the law remains- just as it is with the war on drugs and the fight to legalize marijuana. According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted WHEN, about 61 percent of the United States said marijuana should be legal. North Carolina residents were of similar mind in 2017. Elon University found in a poll that 80 percent of the state was in favor of medical marijuana, and just under fifty percent were in favor of its recreational use. Despite the figures, or groups like the ACLU, neither the popularity of a drug or the law matters to law enforcement. “Illegal drugs are illegal until the law changes,” said Cochran. “Until then, we got a job to do.”
Fuzz Busted
Shannon Marie Graham Child Support SWAIN COUNTY
Michael James Crews Child Support Purge SWAIN COUNTY
Todd DeLoache Martin
Habitual Felon, PWIMSD Meth, Maintain A Place For Drugs, Trafficking In Meth HAYWOOD COUNTY
Local Crime Report
Seth Eugene-Merritt Slocumb Child Support Contempt MACON COUNTY
Kimberly Danielle Lee Child Support Contempt MACON COUNTY
Jason Alexander Hyatt
Marcus Cody Waldroup
James Nicholas Dotson
Jason Warren Hill
Child Support HAYWOOD COUNTY
Writ, Habitual Felon HAYWOOD COUNTY
Child Support SWAIN COUNTY
Habitual Felon MACON COUNTY