Police seek to keep $22,530 from bust

They can attempt to do so under the state's Contraband Forfeiture Act.

By CAREN BURMEISTER, Shorelines


JACKSONVILLE BEACH - Authorities are presenting a money counter and a marijuana grow house diagram seized in a drug bust this month as evidence to help them keep $22,530 in cash that they also found during the raid.

If they succeed in proving the money came from illegal activity, the money will go to the Jacksonville Beach Law Enforcement Trust Fund, which pays for public safety programs and police equipment to help fight crime.

Authorities are pursuing the Jacksonville Beach case under the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act, which lets assets from drug cases help support crime-fighting programs without using tax dollars.

Police spent $12,400 in trust fund money this year for a volunteer coordinator to work part time to oversee Citizens on Patrol, which provides traffic direction, parking enforcement, school crossing guards and a support team for major incidents and special events. They spent another $12,326 from the fund on equipment to protect officers who could respond to a terrorist incident or chemical attack.

In 2006, St. Johns County kicked off its Code Red Program, a countywide emergency notification system, with $30,000 from that county's Law Enforcement Trust Fund.

Forfeitures often produce the toughest penalties for drug dealers, said Regina Durfee, a prosecutor who handles the State Attorney's Office drug forfeiture proceedings.

"It hits the drug dealers pretty hard," she said. "It's a huge deterrent, I think."

Durfee is presently handling 300 forfeiture cases in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, which encompasses Duval, Clay and Nassau counties.

The Jacksonville Beach case started with a Sept. 10 domestic dispute in the 100 block of 19th Avenue North. Police found a woman crying in the bathroom and four marijuana plants in the bathtub.

Alanna Michele Winchester, 23, and Bruce Morehouse, 34, were arrested and charged with cultivating marijuana. Police returned to the house with a search warrant and seized $22,530 and 11 pounds of marijuana. Police also took three digital scales, marijuana seeds, an osmosis machine, numerous lights, ballasts and fans, fertilizer and a detailed diagram of a grow house, including an electrical power consumption estimate.

Durfee said the case provides some interesting clues, such as the money counting machine and the grow house diagram, that could help her prove the money came from a substantial drug operation.

Judges in forfeiture cases also want to know where the money was found, Durfee said. Was it in a wallet, or was it in stacks or a container near the drugs? If the person has a bank account, why wasn't that money in the bank?

"That's a pretty sizeable amount to keep in your house," she said about the Sept. 10 case.

Durfee said she will soon file a forfeiture petition, which kicks off the legal proceeding in civil court. Winchester or Morehouse could request a hearing to argue that they legally earned the money. If the judge rules that the money came from drug sales, he would authorize police to keep it.

While the cash seized at the home on 19th Avenue North was substantial, it wasn't the biggest in Jacksonville Beach's history, said Sgt. Thom Bingham, police spokesman. He said his agency has seized cars, motorcycles, boats and large amounts of cash in drug cases over the years. Several years ago, Jacksonville Beach police worked with federal agents on a case involving the forfeiture of a house in the Rip Tide subdivision off South Beach Parkway, he said.

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