Marijuana Policy Project

MUNCIE — Confidential settlements between the Muncie-Delaware County Drug Task Force and accused drug dealers were not the only way local courts were bypassed in the seizure of money and property.

In examining cases from over the past decade, Delaware Circuit Court 2 Judge Richard Dailey found 140 abandoned property affidavits, executed by Muncie police in charge of their property room or DTF officers, to distribute money and property seized from alleged drug dealers.

There were instances where property was declared abandoned while forfeiture cases were pending and owners of the property and their counsel were present and engaged in litigation, Dailey wrote in a 16-page report on civil drug forfeiture cases.

One of those cases involved convicted drug dealer Emery Brown who was incarcerated at the Pendleton Correctional Facility when he did not appear for a hearing in March 2005.

Then-Judge Pro Tem Ron Henderson — a former deputy prosecutor — heard evidence and granted a forfeiture judgment to then-Deputy Prosecutor Mark McKinney, acting in his role as DTF attorney handling civil forfeitures.

Dailey was troubled by an appearance of impropriety that saw Henderson presiding over a bench trial and granting a judgment to McKinney, along with the abandonment order that did not place the forfeited proceeds in a government general fund, as mandated by state law.

Henderson — who is now chief administrative deputy under now Prosecutor McKinney — was a fellow deputy prosecutor with McKinney during November 1997 to Jan. 1, 2003, and assisted in prosecuting civil forfeitures close in time to the underlying seizure of $858 from Brown in December 2000, Dailey found.

Dailey said he determined that $68,621 from abandoned property affidavits went to the funds controlled by the DTF rather than government general funds.

McKinney has repeatedly insisted he complied with court and state law in handling forfeiture cases.

However, Dailey reported he found cases where no civil forfeiture cases were filed and McKinney still received payment as DTF attorney.

One case involved a confidential settlement signed by McKinney and defense attorney Jill Gonzalez, representing accused drug dealer A.L. McCowan in September 2001.

The deal gave the defendant $1,740, while McKinney was paid $435 in attorney fees and the Indiana State Police Forfeiture Fund was supposed to receive $1,305.

Dailey found no civil action was ever filed in that case, and the criminal case against McCowan was dismissed in 2004. As of July 2, 2008, the ISP still had not received payment after seven years, the judge found.

Gonzalez said she and the state did nothing wrong in their handling of the McCowan case.