Exonerees in Mass. state drug lab scandal want their seized property and money back

A federal class action lawsuit is seeking the return of millions of dollars worth of property seized from people who were later cleared of drug convictions as part of two state drug lab scandals.

It's the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the roughly 30,000 people who had their convictions vacated because evidence was tainted by state chemists Annie Dookhan and Sonja Farak.

The state settled a related lawsuit last year at the state level, agreeing to refund court fees and fines paid by those plaintiffs. But the state didn't agree to return anything seized in those cases under civil forfeiture. The new filing last week amends a prior federal suit to focus specifically on those assets. Attorney Bill Fick, who is representing the five named plaintiffs in the case, said one person named in the lawsuit had $14,000 taken under civil forfeiture and another had $4,000 and a car seized.

Money and property seized under civil forfeiture is split between the local district attorney's office that prosecuted the case and the local police department that was involved, he said.

"Sometimes it's only 200 bucks in someone's pocket, which they might have had for their rent or some perfectly legitimate reason," Fick said. "Other times it's actually a lot more money, or even things like cars. And so our position is that for people whose convictions were vacated and are now presumed innocent, the DAs and the police should not be able to keep that property, which they've had now — in some cases — for going on 10 years or more."

To seize money or property under civil forfeiture rules, the state needs to show there's "probable cause" that it's connected to the criminal activity, Fick explained. If someone wants the seized assets back, he said, it's their responsibility to bring an action to prove it wasn't connected to an offense.

"But that's an unfair burden as a matter of the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution," Fick said.

The state's Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2018 that civil forfeitures in the Farak and Dookhan cases do not need to be returned.

"Our argument is that the state forfeiture process is inherently flawed, at least in the cases of these exonerees," he said. "We really need a ruling from a higher authority, a federal court, that says, 'No, you can't do this. You've got to give this property back.'"

The defendants named in the amended complaint are Attorney General Andrea Campbell, the state's 11 district attorneys, the trial court administrator, and the state police superintendent, as well as police departments in Springfield, Boston, Brockton and Fall River.

A spokesperson for Campbell declined to comment on the suit. In a Progressive Mass questionnaire Campbell filled out while campaigning for office last year, she agreed with a statement that the state's civil forfeiture laws do not provide appropriate due process.