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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| NH Supreme Court: Police No Longer Need Evidence Of Crime To Seize, Destroy Property |
| 2006-08-25 |
| The state Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the government can keep and destroy more than 500 CDs taken from Michael Cohen, owner of Pitchfork Records in Concord, in 2003 even though the state failed to prove that a single disk was illegal. Cohen was arrested for attempting to sell bootleg recordings. But the police case collapsed when it turned out that most of the recordings were made legally. Police dropped six of the seven charges, and Cohen went to trial on one charge. He beat it after the judge concluded that the recording was legal. However, the police refused to return Cohen’s CDs. In the state Supreme Court’s Tuesday ruling, Chief Justice John Broderick, writing for the majority, reasoned so poorly that it appeared as if he’d made up his mind ahead of time. Dissenting, Justice Linda Dalianis wrote, perceptively, that “the majority does not explain how statutes prohibiting the production, publication, or sale of certain works render possession of such works unlawful.” Further, Dalianis concluded that “the state’s failure to establish in any way that the seized property constitutes contraband” made it impossible to justify keeping Cohen’s property. Indeed, the majority’s reasoning is chilling. The majority concedes that no crime or illegal act was proven, but allows the confiscation anyway by concluding that a crime might have been committed. The majority used words such as “apparently,” “likely” and “would have” to describe the alleged illegal activity. It should go without saying that speculation by a few judges that a crime might have been committed is a frightening basis for taking someone’s property. Earlier this year, Nashua police confiscated video recordings of two officers being rude to a citizen at his own home. Though police dropped all charges against Michael Gannon and admitted they could not prove the recordings were illegal, they still kept the tapes. If someone is found with cocaine or any other item clearly illegal to possess, confiscation is easily justified. But the illegality of these items was never proven, and mere possession was not itself illegal. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #8 "Perhaps Justice Souter's home can be seized along with his music collection and destroyed" As long as it can be justifed with plans for a shopping mall, I'm sure he'll approve. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-08-25 16:43 |
| #7 typing is difficult when you have fat fingers or you're senile: "decision" & I still don't know how to spell infallibility |
| Posted by: Clerens, etc. 2006-08-25 16:15 |
| #6 Perhaps Justice Souter's home can be seized along with his music collection and destroyed, thereby validating both the US and NH Supreme Court's infalibility. "Absolute Truth is a 5/4 dections in the Supreme Court"___anon |
| Posted by: Clerens Wherert1653 2006-08-25 16:12 |
| #5 Live Free or Die |
| Posted by: KBK 2006-08-25 14:40 |
| #4 The Metropolitian District Commission. They used to cover the local beaches and parks up here. They were also famous for orchestrating one of the biggest bank heists in Mass history, breaking into state offices to steal civil service tests that they could sell, selling machine guns, drug dealing and that's just some of it. They were also such a patronage haven that they were also known as "MDC:Mike Dukakis's Cops". And, this being Massachusetts, they were eventually disbanded and absorbed by the Mass State Police, which really thrilled the Staties... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-08-25 12:40 |
| #3 Who's MDC? |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2006-08-25 12:31 |
| #2 I remember when the MDC cops, probably the most corrupt police force in history, used to "seize" our beer and fireworks. They must've had great Fourth of July parties... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-08-25 12:28 |
| #1 An appeal to SCOTUS would overturn it. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-08-25 12:25 |