James v. State

Phipps, Judge.

After a bench trial, Darlene James’s 1990 Cadillac Brougham was forfeited to the State because her son, Edrin Temple, used the car to transport and sell drugs on May 3, 1997. James’s defense was that she was an innocent owner of the car. Under the innocent owner provision of the forfeiture statute:

A property interest shall not be subject to forfeiture if . . . the owner of such interest or interest holder establishes that the owner or interest holder [i]s not legally accountable for the conduct giving rise to its forfeiture, did not consent to it, and did not know and could not…