District Attorney for the Northwestern District v. Eastern Hampshire Division of the District Court Department

When a district attorney successfully moves under G. L. c. 94C, § 47 (b), to forfeit money connected to an illegal drug transaction, what is the appropriate disposition of the forfeited funds? In two separate cases, a judge in the District Court answered this question by ordering that the money be deposited in the Commonwealth’s General Fund, rather than shared between the law enforcement trust funds of the prosecuting district attorney and police department involved in each underlying criminal case. The petitioners here — the district attorney for the northwestern district, the district…