- Joined
- Jan 23, 2013
- Messages
- 30,627
Should parents lose house when son sells drugs?
BY JULIE SHAW
September 19, 2014
MORE THAN a month after a federal class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of Philadelphians whose homes were seized and sealed as part of the city's war on drugs, people on both sides are fuming.
The District Attorney's Office, which was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, contends that media coverage has warped the public's perceptions of what really happens in the city's civil-forfeiture program.
The lead plaintiff in the suit, homeowner Christos Sourovelis, is still angry that he and his family were kicked out of their well-maintained, $350,000 two-story home in Somerton for a week in May and that he could lose his house to forfeiture.
On Tuesday, a visibly upset Sourovelis, 52, said while sitting in his back yard - where he had built a Greek-style fountain with stones, burbling water and Greek statues - that he had no idea his son, Yianni Sourovelis, 22, was involved with heroin until his arrest at the family's home on March 27.
Weeks later, on May 8, cops came to their house with a seize-and-seal order, signed by a judge, and told Sourovelis' wife, Markela, that the family had to leave. Cops sealed the doors shut and padlocked the front door. Christos Sourovelis says he can't understand why his family was kicked out when he had nothing to do with drugs.
"Why you have to penalize my family?" said Sourovelis, a painter who owns his own business and is a native of Greece. "I don't do nothing. They go taking the houses away from people working hard in their lives."
Sourovelis, his wife and two daughters were able to return to their home about a week after it was sealed, but it was only after Sourovelis signed an agreement with an assistant district attorney that Yianni would not live in the house.
Beth Grossman, chief assistant district attorney of the D.A.'s Public Nuisance Task Force, and Tasha Jamerson, the office's spokeswoman, insisted last week that homes are seized and sealed and subjected to civil forfeiture only after evidence shows that the house is connected to drug activity.
Jamerson said the Sourovelis case "is the exception, not the rule" in civil forfeiture.
"The majority of these homes that this forfeiture affects in the neighborhoods aren't Somerton," she said. "It's Kensington, it's South Philly, where neighbors call and call and call because they've seen people going in and out of this home buying drugs, and sometimes it's an abandoned building."
"Forfeiture deters drug dealing," Grossman said.
At the time a resident is served a seize-and-seal order, the D.A.'s office does not need to show that the homeowner knew or consented to the drug activity, Grossman said.
Continued Here http://articles.philly.com/2014-09-...tivity-forfeiture-assistant-district-attorney
......................................................................................................................................
Well written article here from Mrs.Shaw. There are still legit writers and reporters afterall.
BY JULIE SHAW
September 19, 2014
MORE THAN a month after a federal class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of Philadelphians whose homes were seized and sealed as part of the city's war on drugs, people on both sides are fuming.
The District Attorney's Office, which was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, contends that media coverage has warped the public's perceptions of what really happens in the city's civil-forfeiture program.
The lead plaintiff in the suit, homeowner Christos Sourovelis, is still angry that he and his family were kicked out of their well-maintained, $350,000 two-story home in Somerton for a week in May and that he could lose his house to forfeiture.
On Tuesday, a visibly upset Sourovelis, 52, said while sitting in his back yard - where he had built a Greek-style fountain with stones, burbling water and Greek statues - that he had no idea his son, Yianni Sourovelis, 22, was involved with heroin until his arrest at the family's home on March 27.
Weeks later, on May 8, cops came to their house with a seize-and-seal order, signed by a judge, and told Sourovelis' wife, Markela, that the family had to leave. Cops sealed the doors shut and padlocked the front door. Christos Sourovelis says he can't understand why his family was kicked out when he had nothing to do with drugs.
"Why you have to penalize my family?" said Sourovelis, a painter who owns his own business and is a native of Greece. "I don't do nothing. They go taking the houses away from people working hard in their lives."
Sourovelis, his wife and two daughters were able to return to their home about a week after it was sealed, but it was only after Sourovelis signed an agreement with an assistant district attorney that Yianni would not live in the house.
Beth Grossman, chief assistant district attorney of the D.A.'s Public Nuisance Task Force, and Tasha Jamerson, the office's spokeswoman, insisted last week that homes are seized and sealed and subjected to civil forfeiture only after evidence shows that the house is connected to drug activity.
Jamerson said the Sourovelis case "is the exception, not the rule" in civil forfeiture.
"The majority of these homes that this forfeiture affects in the neighborhoods aren't Somerton," she said. "It's Kensington, it's South Philly, where neighbors call and call and call because they've seen people going in and out of this home buying drugs, and sometimes it's an abandoned building."
"Forfeiture deters drug dealing," Grossman said.
At the time a resident is served a seize-and-seal order, the D.A.'s office does not need to show that the homeowner knew or consented to the drug activity, Grossman said.
Continued Here http://articles.philly.com/2014-09-...tivity-forfeiture-assistant-district-attorney
......................................................................................................................................
Well written article here from Mrs.Shaw. There are still legit writers and reporters afterall.
