This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, December 5th, 2022.

I'm Caleb Brown.

When the cops take your money, it shouldn't be that hard to get it back if you haven't been

convicted of anything.

In the case of Crystal Starling, a mobile food vendor in Rochester, New York,

she was never charged. She's still having a hard time getting anyone to listen about theft.

And getting thousands of dollars stolen from her back?

That would be icing on the cake.

I spoke with Crystal Starling and Lee McGrath of the Institute for Justice about her case

earlier this year.

You know, back in the the 1990s the Cato Institute published a book

by Henry Hyde and it was called forfeiting our property rights I believe or

something to that effect and it was really sounding the alarm on

this scourge of civil forfeiture and just to capitulate what that is detail in the shortest possible terms what civil forfeiture does.

Forfeiture is the process in which the state takes ownership of property in civil court, independent of criminal prosecution.

So in theory, a person could be acquitted of all criminal charges but still lose their car

still lose their cash for many reasons, one that the standard of proof is so much lower, this is

your OJ moment, that the standard of proof is only preponderance of the evidence

whereas in criminal court it's beyond a reasonable doubt. But more often the

amount of what has been seized and is being litigated in forfeiture

is so small that it's irrational for anyone to engage in the civil process and they default.

They don't respond to the notice, they don't file a complaint, they don't answer a complaint,

...