Pubdate: Sun, 28 Jul 2013
Source: Tulsa World (OK)
Copyright: 2013 World Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.tulsaworld.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/463
Author: Nolan Clay

DA TO RETURN CASH SEIZED WITHOUT ARRESTS

His Drug Task Force Took Money From Travelers on I-40 but Did Not Make Arrests.

HINTON - A district attorney is returning funds in three more cases 
where his drug task force took money from travelers on Interstate 40

Two of the three cases involved stops where money was seized but no 
one was arrested. A total of $21,227 is being returned in the three cases.

"I was really, really very scared," said Julius S. Crooks, 28, who is 
getting back $7,500 and a semi-automatic rifle.

He was stopped in January on the way home to California from visiting 
family in Alabama. He was not arrested.

District Attorney Jason Hicks agreed Thursday to return the funds in 
the three cases, dropping efforts to have the money forfeited to law 
enforcement use. He had alleged cash found in the stops was drug money.

Prosecutors had earlier dropped criminal cases arising from other 
drug stops. They also returned almost $17,000 and a vehicle seized in 
those stops.

Hicks is under fire for hiring a private company, Desert Snow LLC, to 
assist in his drug interdiction effort.

After hiring the Guthrie company in January, his task force seized 
more than $1 million in the stops, mostly along a 21-mile stretch of 
I-40 in Caddo County. Hicks agreed to pay the company 25 percent of 
all forfeited proceeds from stops involving its trainers.

Critics complain the arrangement led to instances where money was 
seized from cars for trumped-up reasons.

"The Constitution was suspended in Caddo County," said Oklahoma City 
attorney Mark Myles, who represented Crooks.

Hicks halted his drug interdiction effort immediately after a judge 
became upset with it July 2.

"I'm shocked," the judge said after learning Desert Snow's owner 
pulled over a pregnant woman and questioned her even though he is not 
a state-certified law enforcement officer.

Hicks is the district attorney in Caddo, Grady, Jefferson and 
Stephens counties. "I believe I have done everything right," he told 
The Oklahoman July 18.

Hicks declined Friday to explain why he is returning money in the 
three latest cases.

"I've taken the position that I'm not going to comment on anything 
else until ... we've had the opportunity to review everything," Hicks said.

Hicks said he does not plan to return almost $850,000 seized in one 
stop in May. No one was arrested in that stop.

"I hope that people don't have the impression that the guys from 
Desert Snow were up on the highway running around by themselves 
because they weren't," he said.

He said an investigator from his task force "was right there with 
them the entire time."

The first traffic stop that led to money being seized was the one 
involving Crooks.

The Oklahoma attorney general's office is investigating Crooks' claim 
that the task force seized $7,900 from him. Crooks on Friday provided 
The Oklahoman a photo of a receipt - showing $7,900 in $20 bills was taken.

Prosecutors reported the task force took $7,500.

Under review in the attorney general's investigation is whether 
someone stole $400 after the stop or whether the money was miscounted.

Crooks said he, a cousin and a friend were traveling in a new rental 
car, with paper tags, when they were pulled over in Oklahoma twice 
within five minutes.

Participating in the second stop was a Desert Snow employee named 
Jason Henderson. Crooks said an officer Henderson was the one who 
questioned them.

"He was like, 'You all are riding down one of the most notorious drug 
highways ... with no plates ... So do you have ... in the car large 
amounts of U.S. currency?' I told them, 'Yes, I have money.' ... As 
soon as they learned I had money, they were so persistent in checking 
our vehicle," Crooks recalled. "You should have seen how their eyes lit up."

Crooks, a security guard, said an uncle loaned him the money to buy a 
car. He said he bought the rifle on impulse while shopping with his 
father, a hunter. He said both the money and the rifle, which was 
disassembled, were in a bag in the back of the car.

"They tore our whole car up. ... They just like violated all our 
stuff. They stepped on our food, poured out our drinks, everything. 
It was just like very rude," Crooks said. "It was just crazy, like we 
were real, live drug dealers. And I've never been in trouble with any of that."

Prosecutors alleged traces of marijuana were in the bag with the 
money. Crooks disputes that, saying he would have been put in jail if 
drugs had been found.

Crooks said he tried to ask questions about why the money was taken. 
He said the district attorney's chief investigator, Lewis Garrison, 
"got mad ... put his finger in my face and said, 'You better get the 
hell off my freeway and right now!' "

He said he went to the Caddo County courthouse to try to get his 
money back the next morning. and got in another confrontation with Garrison.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom