Riverside County Did So, Drawing Some Publicity and Fees With a Twist!
As reported by Richard K. De Atley of The Press-Enterprise in a January 10, 2011 post, Riverside County apparently paid some of its defense lawyers in a suit against outgoing District Attorney Rod Pacheco through funds gained from criminally seized assets. Records obtained by The Press-Enterprise showed 11 checks at $10,000 each to the Santa Monica firm of Bingham McCutcheon, because $10,000 amounts are the maximum that can be spent without the county obtaining supervisors’ approval. Professor Laurie Levenson of Loyola Law School, L.A. said that the use of asset forfeiture money to pay lawyers “is unusual, but that does not mean it is illegal or improper–just very creative.” A blogging commentator named Guest observed that many other prosecutors throughout the U.S. had been called to task for using asset forfeiture funds for illegitimate purposes, disagreeing with Professor Levenson’s quotation on the subject. Indeed, this is fee payment with an unusual twist!