Civil forfeiture is an attack on the fundamental American principal that a person accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Civil forfeiture is a legal process that allows law enforcement officers to take assets and property from persons suspected of illegal activity without charging the owner(s) with wrongdoing. Civil forfeiture contradicts the values and foundations that the American legal system is built upon. Take James Lieto for example, a New York businessman who had $392,000 seized by the federal authorities because his money was mixed with illegal funds in an armored car that was seized by the FBI. Lieto had to wait until the government’s criminal case was finished before his property was returned to him, which took
