Rochester woman can challenge forfeiture of $8K seized in police raid

A Rochester woman who claims police wrongly seized $8,040 during a Rochester police raid has simply wanted her day in court and the money returned that she lost in forfeiture.

On Friday, a federal appellate court ruled that she will now get that day in court, and there the decision will likely be made whether she is returned the money — money she says law enforcement wrongly linked to her then-boyfriend, who was accused of drug dealing. Instead, she said, the cash was hers.

On Friday, the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Rochester-based U.S. District Judge Charles Siragusa had wrongly blocked Cristal Starling from an opportunity to argue in court why the money should be returned to her. Starling, who was never charged with a crime, had missed a deadline to challenge a civil forfeiture of the money.

Starling has said she was on vacation and missed a letter notifying her of an appeal process. She later wrote letters to federal prosecutors, wanting to challenge the forfeiture.

At one point, she was offered the return of half of the money, even after determining that her initial failure to respond led to a default of the money.

"My question to them was if I had already lost all rights to the full amount of currency ... and it's already in default, why would you be offering half of it back," Starling said in a 2022 interview with the Democrat and Chronicle.

Starling represented herself in her initial attempts for the money's return. After Siragusa upheld the decision that she had not answered the government in a timely manner, the nonprofit Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, took on her appeal.

Starling's case, Institute attorneys said, is typical of many forfeiture cases in the country: The money is not a huge amount and the administrative process so overwhelming that people who lose their money simply give up.

"The court recognized what has always been abundantly clear about civil forfeiture: allowing police to pocket the money they take from people who have never been charged with a crime encourages police to take more money from innocent people," Institute attorney Seth Young said in a statement Friday.

In October 2020, Rochester police raided the West Main Street apartment of Starling and her then-boyfriend. No drugs were found, but police seized the $8,040 in currency.

Her boyfriend was arrested based on drugs found at another home, but he was later acquitted of the charges.

After the acquittal Starling sought the return of the money, but fell into what Institute lawyers say is an administrative maze that often leads to few challenges of the seizures.

Institute data for 21 states from 2022 showed that the median currency forfeiture was $1,276 — making most people unwilling to pay for a lawyer, according to Institute lawyers.

"Today’s decision will have important consequences for civil forfeiture victims who are trying to navigate complicated forfeiture procedures, often without help from a lawyer," Institute Senior Attorney Rob Johnson said Friday in a statement. "If the government wants to take your money, they should have to prove you did something wrong — not trip you up with legal procedures."

Starling had planned to use her cash for a food truck purchase.

"I’m excited and looking forward to fighting this," Starling said in a statement. "And I’m happy that I was able to push through and persevere through all these filings, all this paper, and all these court proceedings. Nobody should have to fight this hard just to keep what’s theirs."

On appeal, the government argued that courts should hold forfeiture targets to a higher standard than applies in other types of cases and should be less willing to forgive missed deadlines in forfeiture cases. The Second Circuit rejected that argument.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Cristal Starling can challenge forfeiture of $8K seized in police raid