Rightful Justice

After a 15-month-long legal battle, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has finally been ordered to return more than $100,000 of personal funds taken from James Slatic and his family. Slatic was the owner of Med-West, a legally operating medical cannabis business, which was raided in January of 2016. No criminal charges were ever filed.

The money was taken from not only Slatic’s personal account, but also from his wife, and even their two teenage daughters’ college savings accounts, under civil asset forfeiture laws. Attorney Allison Daniel of the Institute for Justice, which represented Slatic pro bono, explained to CULTURE the significance that this case has in helping future victims of unjust civil asset forfeiture. “The Slatics’ case illustrates that the only way to prevent abuse is to end civil asset forfeiture once and for all,” Daniel said. “The vast majority of forfeiture cases are never heard by a judge because most forfeiture victims cannot afford to hire a lawyer and prove their own innocence. And that is why this victory is so important; it shows that people can fight back and win.”

“It’s nice to get a signed court order from a judge saying that the government has to return my family’s money, with interest. But of course, they never should have taken my family’s money in the first place.”

The court order, signed by Superior Court Judge Tamila Ipema reads, in part, “[The] money that [the] People are holding does not appear to have any evidentiary value on its own, and it cannot be declared contraband without due process. The People’s investigations have been on-going since January 2016 and there is no indication from the People that criminal charges are going to be filed in this case in the near future. The People cannot hold on to [the Slatics’] money indefinitely without having filed any charges against them at the present time.” The District Attorney’s Office, in a hearing on Wednesday May 10, said it would not challenge the order. The ruling by Judge Ipema confirmed what Slatic’s attorneys and cannabis activists have been saying all along—law enforcement used the questionable tactics of civil asset forfeiture to take money from a law abiding family.

In the days following the ruling, CULTURE spoke to James Slatic about how this order will impact his family. “It’s nice to get a signed court order from a judge saying that the government has to return my family’s money, with interest. But of course, they never should have taken my family’s money in the first place,” Slatic said. “It’s like you never win these because it’s a matter of how much pain they’ve inflicted, and how much it will mitigate that pain.”

Although Slatic admitted that he does not feel that justice has been served to its full potential, this order does bring some sort of relief to his family. “ . . . I’m relieved for my wife and my daughters who got caught up in this, because now they get their money back,” Slatic said. “I was the guy doing the business, so I took the liability. They got sucked up into it just by being related to me, and so I’m very grateful that my family members are out of it, and will get their money returned.”

Slatic continued to explain that returning the money to his family will not fix all the additional problems this asset forfeiture has inflicted on his business. “[This order] doesn’t give me back anything from the business. It’s been almost a year and a half. It’s destroyed my good size cannabis company.” Slatic is currently planning legal action to have the $325,000 that was seized from Med-West returned as well. Med-West operated openly and legally for two years, paid taxes, and the business employed 35 people with benefits and retirement funds.

Slatic intends to stay in the cannabis business industry, and he will move forward with legal action to obtain all else that is owed to him.