Class-Action Lawsuit Will Challenge NYPD’s Use Of Civil Forfeiture To Rob Innocent New Yorkers

“Kaleb Hagos was arrested by police on September 23rd, 2015, and had $2,931.68 in cash confiscated, along with an iPhone he was carrying in his pocket. Since then, the case against him has been terminated, and his lawyers at the Bronx Defenders have repeatedly tried to retrieve his phone and money—but to date, the Bronx District Attorney’s office has refused to return his property. Hagos, along with two other individuals who have had property seized and not returned by the NYPD, is now part of a lawsuit seeking class-action status that challenges the police department’s practice of civil forfeiture, a policy based on a 135-year-old law that robs poor New Yorkers of millions of dollars every year.”

Read the article here.

For more on the lawsuit, see our press release.